If you live in a hot climate like I do, summers can be pretty brutal. Temperatures here often climb above 40°C (104°F), which can be a real problem when you’re trying to keep your chickens safe from overheating—a condition that can lead to severe health issues or even death.
To get your chickens through the hottest days of the year, you’ll need to follow basic chicken care and go a little further to ensure their comfort.
Having endured several extreme heatwaves, I’ve managed to keep all my chickens happy and healthy throughout. Today, I want to share how I keep my flock cool, along with some tips to help you do the same.
How Chickens Keep Themselves Cool
Chickens don’t have sweat glands like we do, and their feathers limit their ability to cool down. Since chicken feathers are waterproof, wetting them doesn’t help with cooling. Instead, it creates an insulating effect, trapping heat and making them even hotter.
To regulate their temperature, chickens mainly pant and hold their wings out to release body heat. They also transfer heat through their feet, so wetting their feet can be helpful in hot weather as it provides a cooling effect.
However, it’s important to note that baby chicks should not have wet feet. Since they can’t regulate their body temperature on their own, wet feet can make them too cold.
Chickens also take dust baths to cover themselves with cooler sand and dig deeper into the ground, where it’s naturally cooler.
How to Identify Heat Stress
Signs of heat stress include:
- Panting
- Wings held out
- Comb, wattle, or face turning pale or white
- Lethargy
- Drooping head
- Collapse
Every chicken handles heat stress differently and may show various signs. In my experience, panting is usually fine and just a natural way for chickens to cool themselves. Wings held out mean they’re quite hot but likely still okay. However, as you go further down the list of symptoms, the condition becomes more serious, and immediate action is needed.
How to Revive a Heat Stressed Chicken
If your chicken is showing severe signs of heat stress and you suspect they’ve overheated, you can place them in a bucket of lukewarm water for around 30 minutes, with their head sticking out. Some people use a plastic tub with a hole cut in the lid to keep the chicken contained while keeping its head above the water.
- Stay Calm and Gentle: When dealing with a heat-stressed chicken, you want to stay calm and handle them gently. Stress can make the situation worse.
- Use Lukewarm Water: Instead of cold water, that could shock the chicken, use lukewarm water to help slowly cool them down.
- Hydration: After cooling down, give the chicken fresh, cool water to help rehydrate them. Dehydration can be just as dangerous as the heat stress itself.
- Rest and Observation: After the 30 minutes, keep the chicken in a shaded, cool area to recover. Watch them closely for the next few hours. If they don’t show signs of improvement, it may be time to consult a vet.
Remember that you should only resort to dunking your chicken in water if their condition looks extremely severe. Most chickens will respond positively to less extreme means of cooling, like providing shade, fresh water, and a cool environment.
Vulnerable Chickens
A healthy, mature chicken can tolerate severe heat quite well, as long as they have the right conditions to manage it. However, sick, overweight, older chickens, young pullets (hens), and chicks are much more susceptible to heat stress. Extra attention should be given to their well-being during very hot weather.
If you’re raising chicks inside, remember that running the air conditioner on a hot day can affect their ability to regulate their temperature, so be sure to check on them regularly to make sure they are not too cold.
Currently, I’m integrating chicks into an existing flock, and I’ve definitely noticed that the older chickens are much more comfortable in the heat, while the younger chicks tend to pant. This could be because experience allows the older chickens to behave in ways that help manage the situation better. For instance, while the chicks still run around in the hot weather, exacerbating the problem, the older hens tend to stay cool by sitting in their dust bath the whole day.
If you’re dealing with very vulnerable chickens, one option is to bring them indoors where they can enjoy air conditioning. Many people find this a helpful way to keep their most heat-sensitive birds comfortable during extreme temperatures.
That being said, the rest of this article will talk about ways to manage extreme heat, without needing to bring your chickens inside.
Broody Hens
The coop is usually much hotter than the run, and if you have chickens laying during the heat of the day or a broody hen who wants to sit inside all day, they are at risk of overheating. I suggest closing off the coop during the hottest part of the day and keeping all the chickens in the run, unless your coop is extremely well-insulated and ventilated.
How to Keep Chickens Cool in Hot Weather
During hot weather, keeping your chickens cool is important for their health and wellbeing. Luckily for us, there are a lot of ways to help keep your chickens cool, and I’ve broken them down into categories based on whether you’re home or not.
When You’re Home
Ice Blocks
We like to use ice blocks and frozen gel packs as a temporary way to cool chickens during the hottest part of the day. Freeze water in an ice cream container or sandwich bag to create a large chunk of ice. This will last around 2-4 hours, slowly releasing cool air to help lower the temperature.
If you have pullets out in the run, ice blocks are great to have on the floor for them to stand or sit on, as this will immediately cool them down.
If you know hot weather is coming, it’s a good idea to make a ton of ice the night before so you have what you need at hand on the day. This way, you can easily replace any ice blocks as needed and keep your chickens cool throughout the hottest hours.
Frozen Treats
Watermelon and frozen mulberries are our go-to treats for keeping chickens cool. We give them watermelon chunks to peck at, and thaw out mulberries in a bowl of water that they can drink and eat from.
You can offer any chicken-safe food that is frozen or refrigerated to help cool them down. Things like berries, fruits, and leafy greens make good treats for a hot day that will help hydrate your chickens.
Spray Down the Run
If I’m home, I’ll spray down the run every couple of hours with cold water. The cold water dripping down will blow in the wind, much like a misting system, providing a cool breeze for the chickens. I also spray down their sand bath as they like to sit in the wet sand to keep cool.
When You’re Not Home
Misting
You can set up a misting system on a timer for when you’re not home. Chickens don’t love being misted, so keep it at a low pressure and position it on the side of the run with prevailing winds so cool air will be blown into the run.
Soaker Hose
Similar to misting, a soaker hose on a timer in the run will let the chickens wet their feet, helping them cool down. You can also direct this into their sand bath where chickens likes to hang out in hot weather.
General Tips for Both
Keep Water Cold
Chickens won’t drink warm water, so it’s important to cool it down. Large containers are easier to keep cold—just make sure they’re in the shade and add ice blocks to help maintain a cooler temperature during extreme heat.
Shade
Shade is essential in hot weather, but hard shade is best. Hard shade, like a solid structure or building, blocks more light and keeps the area cooler. Soft shade, like a shade cloth, still lets light through. It’s like being inside a building versus standing under a tree in hot weather—both are cool, but the building is usually much cooler.
Sand Bath
Chickens need access to a sand bath, especially in hot weather. It’s important to make sure it’s large enough for all your chickens to fit comfortably and place it in a shady location. If the sand bath is too hot, your chickens may avoid using it altogether.
Nesting Box and Roost Height
Heat rises, so the top of your coop and run will be much hotter than ground level. Place nesting boxes low to the ground to keep chickens cool while laying, and avoid placing roosts too high. If they are, make sure there’s proper ventilation to allow hot air to escape. If you’re looking for ideas, my article on turning a shed into a chicken coop offers some.
Flooring
The flooring of the coop and run shouldn’t be made of metal or anything that retains too much heat. Sand, for example, can get extremely hot and burn chickens’ feet. If you’ve ever been to the beach on a hot day, walking barefoot, you’ll know exactly what I mean.
Wood chips or mulch are much better options for keeping the ground cooler, especially in the run, where sun exposure is more direct. My coop has a brick floor, which works fine since it’s shaded, but the run is mainly woodchip, helping to keep things cooler for the chickens throughout the day.
Conclusion
Hot weather can be a menace, both to us and our chickens. Hopefully, this guide has provided you with some helpful ideas and methods to keep your chickens cool during those scorching summer days. Whether your home or at work, you can help ensure your chickens stay comfortable and healthy throughout the heat.
If you have your own methods that work well for you, share it in the comments.
