Keep Chickens Cool

How to Keep Chickens Cool in Summer
https://www.pamsbackyardchickens.com/2019/06/how-to-keep-chickens-cool-in-summer.html

Keeping your chickens cool in summer is a must do. There's nothing we can do to stop the heat, but we can help our chickens beat the heat.

With the mercury rising, it's important to remember that high temperatures can be harder on a flock than the cold temperatures of winter. The effects of heat are cumulative and can be enhanced by high humidity, so be sure to keep vigilant during heat spells. A temperature of 80 degrees with high humidity can bring on heat-related problems.

How Do Chickens Cool Themselves?

When we're hot, we sweat. Yes, it's uncomfortable, but it is a cooling mechanism for humans. Do chickens sweat? Nope. They rely on both adaptations and natural behavior to cool themselves.

Adaptations — Chickens, especially Meditteranean breeds like Leghorns, put their combs and wattles to good use in warm weather. As blood circulates through their combs and wattles, heat is released, cooling the chicken. The larger the combs and wattles, the more surface space is available to release heat.

Behaviors — Chickens naturally know what to do to assist their bodies with the task of staying cool.  They will spread their wings and lift their feathers to let heat escape. Chickens will start to pant when the temperature reaches 85 degrees. They can also vibrate their throat muscles which allows warm moisture to evaporate. In the heat of the day, free-range chickens look for an undisturbed shady, cool spot to rest.

How We Can Help

• We can provide these cool spaces throughout the yard with garden plantings, awnings, umbrellas or whatever it takes to get out of the sun.

• Water is crucial during the summer's heat. Adding more water containers, keeping them filled, and locating them in shady spots is helpful. 

• Adding some ice to the water hits the spot, just be sure not to add too much. We don't want to shock our chickens with frigid water, just cool them off a little. 

• Provide some chilled treats like watermelon or blueberries. The chilled food is a nice break from the heat and the extra water inside helps your chickens stay hydrated. 

• Consider adding a shallow pool of water where your chickens can stand in the water to cool off their feet. 

• Don't coop up your chickens during hot weather. The inside of a coop can be much hotter than outside and more intense. If you're considering where to place your coop, keep summer's heat in mind. Locate your coop where there is relief through the shade, such as the edge of a tree line. When your chickens do go inside at night to roost, make sure the coop is well-ventilated by leaving windows open and having a fan running to increase air movement.

• Check on your chickens often during the summer heat. If you have kids, be sure they don't run around and try to play with the chickens. Increase activity equals increased body heat. Keeping your birds comfortable and undisturbed will help them avoid heat stress and enjoy the summer.

Heat-Tolerant Chicken Breeds

Although it’s easier to keep chickens warm vs. cool, it’s important to choose the correct breed for your location, whether that be a cold-hardy chicken or a heat-tolerant chicken breed.

Every year there are stories of folks that bought the wrong breed for their climate and experience losses, have unhealthy chickens, or end up bringing their birds inside where the climate is more moderate. Don’t let this happen to you! Make sure to pick a breed that will live comfortably in your climate. Your birds will thank you for it!

Popular Heat-Tolerant Breeds

Black Australorp
Brahma
Delaware
Easter Egger
Leghorn
New Hampshire Red
Plymouth Rock
Rhode Island Red
Sussex8 Tips For Keeping Chickens Cool In The Summer

When the weather gets hot, it can mean trouble for your birds.  Whenever the temperature gets above 90 degrees it can be dangerous for your backyard flock.  Chickens (generally) don’t live in air conditioned buildings, and it wouldn’t be healthy for them even if they did.  They also don’t get to go swimming like us lucky humans, so what are they supposed to do?  Thankfully, keeping chickens cool in the summer is totally doable with only a few adjustments on your part.

Chickens are actually descended from jungle fowl, so many of them can do quite well.  They certainly cope with heat better than rabbits do.  Chickens dissipate heat from their combs, beaks, and feet.  So, if you live in a hot area, try to choose lightweight chicken breeds with larger combs.  Breeds that are hardy in cold weather will not do as well.  You will probably notice a drop in egg production when it’s very hot, especially for breeds with small combs.

Chickens can get heat stroke and die.  If you notice them walking around with their beaks open, that’s a sign that they’re overheating and attempting to cool down.  They will also hold their wings away from their body to help air flow cool them down.  If you notice a bird that is non-responsive you need to act very quickly to cool her down!  Put her in cool (NOT ICY) water and make sure to get past her feathers to her skin.  This will cool her down gradually and may possibly save her life.

8 Tips For Keeping Chickens Cool In The Summer

https://farmingmybackyard.com/keeping-chickens-cool/


Of course the best course of action is to keep your hens from overheating in the first place.  Here are some tips that will help you keep your chickens cool even when it’s hot outside.

Make a mud bath.

Chickens don’t really like to stand in water, but when it’s hot, they will cool their feet in a muddy puddle.  Make a muddy corner in their coop where they can stand to cool down.  Don’t swamp the whole thing of course!  Some people recommend a small wading pool with a couple inches of water, but I’ve found my birds never walk through one on their own, but they’ll happily wade right into a bit of mud.

Provide dust bathing space.

Dirt might not be your thing, but birds don’t mind it!  A cool spot to dust bathe helps your chickens regulate their body temperature.  If they don’t have a natural area in the run, then provide a rubbermaid tub of dirt for them to use.

Make sure there’s plenty of ventilation in the coop.

A well ventilated coop is a necessity year round, but you’ll want even more ventilation when it’s hot.  My largest coop has a window that opens and shuts.  During the day I could open it to create a cross breeze and cool the coop down.  Any enclosed space is going to have a greenhouse effect.  If your area gets very hot, plan accordingly when designing your coop.

Clean out the coop instead of using deep litter.

Spring is a great time to clean out aged deep litter in your coop.  Using a deep litter method produces heat as it breaks down, which is great in the winter.  Not so great in 100 degree weather.  Take advantage of the heat and clean your coop from top to bottom.

Report this ad

Keep their water cool.

Chickens will need more water in hot weather, and they’ll cope much better if it’s cool.  You can bring them cool water throughout the day if needed.  You could also put a frozen bottle into their water to help it cool down.  Putting the water in a shady spot helps as well.

Freeze treats for them

Frozen fruits or ice blocks with scraps of vegetables make great treats for a hot day.  It also gives your birds something to peck at and entertain themselves with.

Make Sure They Have Shade

Shade is the most important thing for helping your birds stay cool.  Shade from trees and bushes will help them stay cooler than shade from buildings.  If you have no natural shade, tarps or shade cloth can be used in a pinch, but they’ll also reduce ventilation.  Try to move your run into a shady area if possible.  At the very least, plant some trees so that next year you’ll have them.

Add misters.

Adding a mister can significantly cool down an area.  In fact, if you have a shady area with a few misters going, your chickens may be quite comfortable even if you’re sweating.  You can purchase an entire misting system, or just add a misting nozzle onto the end of your hose.  Here’s a decently priced misting nozzle if you need an example of what to look for. 

Part of your responsibility as a chicken keeper is to keep them safe during extreme weather.  Thankfully, keeping your chickens cool doesn’t have to be difficult, and they sure will appreciate you for it!

Summer Fun with Chickens

Summer - An Egg-cellent Time To Begin Keeping Chickens

Kassandra Smith

Senior Editor • Backyard Chicken Coops

26 November 2014 https://www.backyardchickencoops.com.au/blogs/learning-centre/summer-an-egg-cellent-time-to-begin-keeping-chickens

Spring chicks = summer chickens! While spring seems to be the perfect time of year to hatch chicks, summer is the perfect time of year to begin keeping chickens. The length of time that it takes for newly hatched chicks to grow and develop into fully feathered chickens is about the same length of time that it takes for spring showers to grow into summer flowers. It’s uncanny! So, go ahead and roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer and start the egg-cellent adventure that is chicken keeping.





Keeping Chickens is Fun! Keeping Chickens in Summer is GREAT Fun!
Whether you choose to hatch your first flock of feathery friends or to purchase them at Point of Lay age, summer is an optimal time of year to begin the incredible journey into the wonderful yet wacky world of chicken keeping! The warm sun filled summer season paints a perfect backdrop for beginning chicken keepers-milder temperatures and abundant sun allow you to spend LOTS of quality time lazing about watching your chickens forage and egg-splore. These beautiful, sociable, intelligent, entertaining and practical feathered creatures will captivate your senses, not to mention your actual SENSE-you may just wind up sleeping out under the stars just so you can be there when the sun wakes them. Don’t be surprised though when you awaken from a peck on your cheek, literally!
You are sure to reap twofold, threefold, or more what you sow when you share your summer backyard with chickens:

• With the myriad of breeds and varieties within those breeds, you can create a quite a colourful crowd of clucky chooks that’s just bound to add a bit of spice to your landscape.

• And, what comes with a variety of chicken breeds? Yes, you guessed it-egg shells in pastels, oh so yummy looking chocolatey hues, eggs-quisite speckled masterpieces, and the simple beauty of a bright white egg. Your egg basket is sure to be the talk of the town with a such lovely variety of egg shell colour to “Ooh and Ahh” over!

• Chipper chook chatter will engage you, draw you in, until you find yourself visiting the chicken coop several times a day just to catch up on the clucky gossip!

• Chickens are quite entertaining and these chooky clowns will delight with their acrobatic antics leaving you donning a perpetual smile! They’re sure to “crack” you up as they leap into the air in an attempt to catch a fly away fly, chase the worm quarterback in hopes of an interception, or just suddenly squawk and take a short flight because as we all know, the grass is always greener somewhere else! Ha Ha.

• Get ready, get set, go! Don your leader cap for an egg-straordinarily madcap game of “Follow the Leader”! Have chickens? They will definitely follow the yellow cluck road to wherever you lead! And, as an added bonus, this playful but practical activity doubles as practice-chickens can and will happily flock to you when you call, minus a dilly dallying chook or two who are just too enchanted with digging and foraging at the moment. Having favourite treats handy when calling your chooks will definitely bring them clucking and flapping, as well as, help lure the dawdlers!

• Chickens are playful birds who revel in daily stimulation! They enjoy regular interaction with their human families. So, chat with them. Sing to them! Whistle and hum and watch them react-some may cluck in response, while others may just stop whatever they were doing and stare! Add hanging treats for them to peck at. Add some “bird’s eye view” outdoor roosts in their run. Got some swingin’ hip happenin’ chooks? Install a chicken swing and your flock will be flap-happy with glee!

• And, just think of all the oodles and oodles of new egg recipes that you can egg-speriment with while knowing full well that you’ve just cracked some of the most egg-straordinarily nutrient rich, works of art ever created!

• Consider yourself impressed-your intelligent poultry prodigies have the ability to respond to their names, count and understand the concept of zero, learn to perform tricks, recognize colours, and learn by shadowing their feathery siblings! It’s also a delight to watch a mother hen teach her babies all about life!

Practical Poultry- Pleasurable Garden Party Guests!
Are you an avid gardener? Are you absolutely EGGS-hausted from pulling those wretched weeds? Do you spend more time swatting at overzealous insect pests than you do tending to your fresh vegetables and herbs? Enter a small backyard flock of chickens! Chooks are a gardener’s best friend! Not only is keeping chickens in the summer great fun, but it’s practical-ly a party in your garden! Come one, come all feathery creatures! When you share your summer garden with chickens they’ll have fun, but you’ll have great fun in your new weed and bug free haven! Spring Chicks = Summertime Fun!


We here at Backyard Chicken Coops recently tried our hand at hatching chicken eggs! And, oh what an awesome egg-sperience it was. It was definitely the highlight of the spring season. That was only just the beginning though, because as spring wanes and summer bounds in, the real fun begins! With summertime, comes a whirlwind of change and egg-citement. Spring chicks, although fully feathered and mature, do still continue to grow during the summer. And, as Point of Lay nears, egg-citement abounds! There is absolutely nothing more egg-citing than when you visit the hen house in the morning and spy that very first egg-squisite egg, or your first delicate pink hued egg, or your first summer sky blue egg, and the list goes on and on ! Oh yes, there is beauty in the bounty! Plus,watching your young flock egg-splore your backyard for the first time is truly entertaining-wacky flap-happy chickens flopping around in dirt baths-life just doesn’t get any better than that!
So, how do you spell summertime FUN ? C...H...I...C...K...E...N...S!!