Hot Temperatures & Baby Chicks

Fried Chicken, Anyone?

by Sharon Gaughan, PCLF Education Program Director

As most of you reading this already know, it has been an incredibly hot week in the Midwest – and very hot temperatures can be hard on animals – chickens and chicks, as well as people.

I was only mildly worried about our adult flock.  They have plenty of shade and plenty of water available to them, and since they’re pastured, they get the benefit of any cooling breezes.  Several times this week, Anya or I also “watered” the hens with garden watering cans to help cool them down.  Some of them seemed to welcome the shower, but most danced away after feeling the first drops of water on their backs.

Our “backyard chicken” flock – Rhubarb, Rutabaga, and Radish – were happiest when we let them wander in the Children’s Garden, where there is more shade and shady mulched areas in which to rest and/or dust bathe.  They hadn’t been free in the Children’s Garden for a while (that would be rather distracting during our farm camps!), so I’m sure there were also lots of juicy insects to be found and eaten, as well.

But our chicks!  How we fretted over our chicks this past week!

At between 3-4 weeks old, the brooder area for the chicks should ideally be at 80-85 degrees.  With temperatures in the 90s this past week, that was impossible to maintain in the hen house – despite open doors and windows and two fans to help with ventilation. 

So, what else to do?  Books, blogs, and google groups supplied lots of suggestions – many of which we tried this past week.  Anya, Sara and I played tag team as we took turns doing the following, sometimes on an hourly basis:

• We raised the height of the brooder again.  This would help increase air flow beneath, as well as help to not (or only minimally) raise the temperature below the brooder at night, when we still needed to turn on one of the two brooder lamps. 

• The chicks have five waterers available to them, which we clean and refill every day with cold water.   In 3 of 5 waterers we add a bit of apple cider vinegar; most sources say this is good practice anytime, but some suggest it also helps the birds cope with heat.  During the hottest part of each day this week, we also added an ice cube to the tray of each waterer on regular basis to keep water cool.   

• We filled several half-gallon and gallon milk jugs with water and froze them.  We then set those frozen jugs on the floor throughout the brooder area.  The idea was that the chicks could stand or sit on these jugs and/or position themselves near enough to them to benefit from the coolness.  In addition to radiating heat from their combs and wattles (which I knew), chickens also radiate heat from their feet and legs (new information for me).  So, standing or sitting on a cold surface is effective in helping the bird cool down.

• Similarly, if chicks or chickens stand in a shallow pool of cool or cold water, that can also help to cool them down.  So, we put in several shallow pans of water, which many of the chicks stood in and/or walked through regularly.  Each time we added ice cubes to the waterers (see above), we also added ice cubes to these pans of water, to keep the water cool.  These “wading pools” also provided the chicks with additional sources of drinking water – but that meant we needed to continually remove the wood chips and chick poop that ended up in the pans of water.

• On Thursday evening, I attended a “chicken health” workshop in Chicago, where I learned yet another tip.  Set an open cooler on its side and place some of the frozen milk jugs inside of it.  The cool air takes longer to dissipate from the cooler, and the chicks can hang out inside the “air conditioned” room.  We tried it, and it seemed to work – as well as to give the chicks something else to peck at and jump up on.

• We had already been giving fresh greens to the chicks on daily basis, but this week we started soaking the greens in cold water before “serving” them.  This also helped to keep the chicks hydrated.

All of these tasks took a lot of time and coordination between Anya, Sara, and I.  I’m so thankful that I didn’t need to do it all – and thankful that this week of high temperatures happened on a week when we didn’t also have a farm camp to run!  It would have been a bit overwhelming trying to keep the chicks cool, while also trying to keep the kids cool!

As I type this now, the rain has fallen and the temperatures have fallen – and we’re back to somewhat normal.  My hope is that it stays that way.  I'd rather have "cool chicks" than "fried chicken" any day!