The experts say it’s more important to keep chickens cool during the summer than warm during the winter, because they can cope with the cold far better than with the heat.
I’ve found this to be true over the years. Feathers are a great asset in the winter, but quite the opposite during a heat wave. "The girls" obviously are more content when the thermometer drops to 5 degrees than when it spikes to 95.
So this has not been a great week for our two Rhode Island Reds, Nellie and Hope. For days on end, the temperature hovered in the 70-degree range at dawn, and topped 90 within hours, even reaching 97 degrees on one especially brutal day.
The hens survived the ordeal, but not comfortably. They panted, as chickens do when they’re warm. They ate less than usual. They did not move around a lot, spending much of their time in the shade under the elevated coop.
I did what I could to help them, by covering portions of the pen with plywood to block the sun, and by adding ice cubes to their drinking water. I even placed frozen bottles of water in our small coop before the hens went to bed, to help cool it down a bit.
By last night, everything had changed. It was breezy and cool at dusk, which is chicken bed time, and for the first time in close to a week "the girls" appeared to be happy on their roost. Today dawned at 54 degrees, with a projected high in the 70s, and the hens raced out into their pen this morning. Chickens can’t smile, of course, but if they could, they would.
I’ve found this to be true over the years. Feathers are a great asset in the winter, but quite the opposite during a heat wave. "The girls" obviously are more content when the thermometer drops to 5 degrees than when it spikes to 95.
So this has not been a great week for our two Rhode Island Reds, Nellie and Hope. For days on end, the temperature hovered in the 70-degree range at dawn, and topped 90 within hours, even reaching 97 degrees on one especially brutal day.
The hens survived the ordeal, but not comfortably. They panted, as chickens do when they’re warm. They ate less than usual. They did not move around a lot, spending much of their time in the shade under the elevated coop.
I did what I could to help them, by covering portions of the pen with plywood to block the sun, and by adding ice cubes to their drinking water. I even placed frozen bottles of water in our small coop before the hens went to bed, to help cool it down a bit.
By last night, everything had changed. It was breezy and cool at dusk, which is chicken bed time, and for the first time in close to a week "the girls" appeared to be happy on their roost. Today dawned at 54 degrees, with a projected high in the 70s, and the hens raced out into their pen this morning. Chickens can’t smile, of course, but if they could, they would.
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