Here in Western Sydney it can get mighty warm in summer, and while the last couple of years haven’t been that bad all up, this one is shaping up to be a scorcher. As I sit here writing this it is 33°C and later in the week we are expecting a heat wave with top temperatures of the next four days being 37°C, 41°C, 41°C and 44°C respectively.
Needless to say, this has raised concerns for our chooks and while I know some people take them inside and put them in the bathtub, we are really not set up to do that, so I am taking a multipronged approach -
1. Shade/sun protection
When I open the door to the retirement village in the morning and collect the eggs, these days there is a mass exodus with the chooks hitting the chook tunnel and running into the open area on the western side of the shed and then down between the compost bins and the fence where they appear to have a chook-in, no doubt discussing world affairs and the cost of chook food. They sometimes do carry on to where the chook tunnel emerges from the back of the compost bins to an area they like to dig up and dust bathe in. This whole area has been open to the sun since I put it together, but considering the heat we are about to get I decided to have a bit of a go at roofing.
Fortunately I still have the sheet steel panels that made up a previous shed that used to be in the south western corner of the yard. The simplest bit was to place an appropriately sized panel (lucky!) over the top of the mesh covering the top of the open area. On the other end near the greenhouse, I placed another panel, which extended over most of the dust bath area. Between the two is the trail at the back of the compost bays, which is not very wide. To cover it I grabbed a couple of boards and stuck them in place, but I wasn’t happy. Afterward it occurred to me just to pull out another shed panel and place that over the open area, with some overlap onto the compost bays. This worked a treat and now all the ‘outdoor’ areas for the retirement village chooks were covered.
The chook tractor was a little more technical.
The chook tractor is currently set up on an east-west bed, with the solid plywood side facing north, the idea being that it provides shade during most of the day, and it is next to the western fence so that as the sun sets more shade is provided. They only get a few hours of morning sun. But! Using my infrared thermometer, it showed that the surface temperature of the (mostly) white painted back could be 50°C or more, which translated to a surface temperature inside the tractor of 40°C or more.
To get around this I decided to use the idea of a ‘tropical roof’ which I saw on my brother’s old land rover. It had a second metal skin rivetted on top of the roof, giving an air gap between the two ‘roofs’ reducing the amount of heat from the sun conducted through to the interior of the vehicle. I implemented this idea by cutting down a couple of shed panels so they were the same height as the tractor when leaned out a bit to provide an air gap (1600mm long for those playing along at home). I then leaned them against the sunward side of the tractor, and placed a bit of timber at the top, so that the panels were not touching the tractor directly at any point, thus leaving a air gap to reduce heat transfer. So far the effect seems to be that the surface temperature inside the tractor is 10°C or cooler than it would have been without the ‘tropical roof’.
2. Cooling
Previously I have used the hose to apply water to tractor and outdoor run of the retirement village as required, and while the chooks are not fans of being hosed themselves, they do seem to appreciate the cooling effect on the area. Recently, I came across and idea on the net for helping to keep the chooks cool, and thought I would give it a go.
It is quite simple, basically consisting of a number of pavers or bricks in an outer container which is then kept full of water, thus cooling the pavers by evaporation. It appears that part of the chook cooling mechanism is their (non-feathered) feed and legs, which allow heat to be transferred from the chook to the cool pavers, thereby increasing their thermal comfort. At least that is the theory!
So, I stole some pavers from my daughter’s place (with permission) and grabbed some of my endlessly useful garden cat litter trays as the outer container (is there anything they can’t do??) and then placed three pavers in each one. I put them in place in areas that while being shaded, were still easy for me to access for refilling. The chooks did seem somewhat cautious and tentative when I installed them in the late afternoon the day previous to it really getting hot. I placed one in the tractor, one in the retirement village shed itself and one in the erstwhile ‘open area’ just outside the western side of the retirement village shed. The next day, however, once things started to heat up in the middle of the day the wet pavers became popular with the chooks. I will still hose down the chook areas as required, but this seems to provide a longer lasting cooling effect.
3. Food
I must admit here to actions which, although it made sense at the time, turned out to be inappropriate! Previously, one of the ways that I had tried to feed chooks through a hot spell was to freeze tinned corn kernels in a tray of water and give them to both sets of chooks, and they loved them. Well it turns out that feeding corn kernels, even frozen ones, can raise the internal temperature of the chooks due to their caloric content, ie energy is released as the kernels are digested. So, even though there were certainly no complaints from the chooks, it turned out to be a bad idea.
In place of the corn I now feed them fridge cooled or frozen watermelon. As well as the high (91%+) water content watermelons also provide,
- Essential Nutrients: Watermelons contain vitamins A, B6, and C, as well as potassium and magnesium, which help maintain hydration and support immune function, especially during heat stress.
- Antioxidants: Watermelon is rich in antioxidants like lycopene, which helps protect cells from damage.
- Natural Cooling Properties: The rind contains L-citrulline, which has been shown to help lower body temperature in heat-stressed chooks.
- Entertainment: Pecking at a large piece of watermelon or an ice block appears to be a huge amount of fun for a chook.
I have certainly had not complaints from the chooks due to the change in diet, and don’t expect any, what I do expect is the chooks all pressed up against the wire hassling for chook treats as soon as I walk out into the backyard!
