Nathan’s Summer Heat Tips!
Well here we are mid-way through Summer and the temperatures are scorching. I know we are all doing our best to keep our chooks cool. A few years ago when we first moved to Tamworth we were struggling with the heat and we had lost quite a few of our chickens so I had to find some ways to keep them cool and alive.
I take absolutely no credit for any of the ideas I am about to write about as these are a collection of ideas I have read about, been told about and implement myself. I would like to thank David Plant, from the Australian National Pekin Club, for all the advice he has given to me in regards to keeping my pekins alive over the three hot summers that I have been in Tamworth.
Below are a few things we do at home, and a few that we don’t but might help others.
Mulch
1. We use mulch on the floor of our grower pens so we hose the mulch early in the morning and our chickens will lay all over it and when it starts to dry they dig down to the damp layer. In our extreme heat days where we reach up to 45 degrees, we hose our pens in the morning, mid-afternoon and the evening because it dries so fast.
2. Most of us have a tin roof over our pens and these emit a very high amount of heat. The key is to try and keep the roof as cool as possible. One way is to laying mulch about 6 inches thick across the top and hose it in the early morning or late in the evening. You would need to put something heavy across it to stop it blowing off.
Pens and Tree Coverage
3. We have tried to build our pens as close to trees as we can so they get shade during the hottest part of the day and it is amazing how much cooler the pens that have shade are than our pens that are out in full sunlight all day. When we build the new growers pens this year, we will be planting lots of trees!!
4. We have some really big trees that provide excellent shade for our older hens. They get to free range all day as they have come out of breeding pens. We hose the dirt under the tree and they lay and dust bath in it. It also provides shelter from the hawks we have flying around here.
5. Our pens have about an 8cm to 10cm gap along the top. We all know hot air rises so this is another way to help get some of that hot air out of the coop. As we continue to improve our pens and build new ones, we are building them higher, at about 3m high and this has made a big difference too.
6. Another way to help cool a tin roof is to have a sprinkler hose above it as this will help keep the tin a bit cooler.
7. Just this week I bought a misting kit from Bunnings and a timer and I will be putting this up before I go back to school. The timer means they will get short bursts of mist throughout the day when I am not home, hoping it keeps them cool enough when I can’t be home to hose the mulch in the pens.
Water and Frozen Treats
8. Of course cold water is important and thankfully at the moment I am on school holidays so I am able to change their waters throughout the day. I also have frozen water ready in the freezer and I drop a big block of ice into their drinkers if I have to go to work and I won’t be home to change them. By late afternoon they are hot again and I just change the water again when I get home. This is going to be really tough when I am back at school and Mum is back at work as we won’t be able to do this so they will get frozen blocks of ice and then they have to wait until one of us get home to change them. Also adding hydrolytes to the water is really important.
9. Frozen treats are also a winner in the pens. Frozen ice with corn and frozen watermelon are well received in our pens. They love their frozen treats.
I know there are many more tips and tricks that breeders use but this is just a few that I know of and ones that I have used myself.
We are half way through Summer, so wishing everyone the best of luck during this really hot season.
Nathan.