Today we're showing you ways we keep our chickens cool in the desert heat. Support the channel for free by starting your Amazon shopping here! www.amazon.com/shop/edgeofnow...
Chicken drinking that water is like: Going to a fancy restaurant and instead of import water you say "No thanks just give me a mop bucket and a straw" .
Chickens on que......"lets walk up high and show off how brave we are". You folks have trained the animals well! you explain it all well ! The yard birds definitely like their wading pools! Our chickens share with our ducks the kiddie pools......yes ducks in the desert! When we dump the pools the trees get watered :) PALLETS RULE!
Hey Dan. We do have them well trained to the camera at this point. As soon as Lori starts rolling they make themselves known! Still kicking around the idea of ducks. Maybe once we get the other livestock on the farm we can work them into the mix. Duck water for the fruit trees sounds like a fine idea!
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Thats what i say too. the only reason why they still alive is because of you guys providing the water. since they are new small colonies they are mainly focusing on staying alive throughout the summer months (Ju-Jul-Au and even Sept ) once we pass that then we'll talk honey haha.lol
Thank you so much for this show. I'm getting my first chicks in August, no choice on the date, live in a small city bordering Arizona and Nevada, it averages 110 when they get delivered. Our temps also go up to 125 and sometimes higher. I have watched so many videos on keeping chickens cool and yours is neat and clean and concise so you have provided me some relief on how to care for them, especially when you say you haven't even lost one. I especially love the tubs with the bricks. No others have shown that and it's perfect!
Hey there Barbara! Congrats on those new little babies on their way to you. It is pretty simple keeping chickens in desert environments with just a few tweaks in how we keep them. For us the challenging time is Summer when most of the country struggles to keep them in Winter!
I'm so jealous of your chickens. Please bring them over and I promise to let them swim in our pool as long as they fertilize my yard. Great job explaining everything and thank you for sharing.
Still just boggles my mind that you're not allowed to keep a few chickens in so many places. Yeah, they would probably drink from your pool and then immediately start scratching at all of your wood chips spreading them all over the place!
The girls are real hams. Especially when we spend time with them trying to shoot footage for the channel. I figure they realize they're on camera and want to show off!
I do the same with the chicken pools. Instead of the concrete mixer, I just Sterlite clear bins from walmart that are about the same size. They are a fraction of the cost ($2) and should hold up for a while if kept out of the sun. I use the same bins for mealworms. I also freeze blocks of ice and it lasts most the day, even in 115 degrees.
My niece’s chickens won’t eat meal worms. Maybe they are too young as they seem to only want their food. I have some “Lock and Lock” 2 cup bowls that we are using to freeze water in blocks. I am thinking I should use my larger bowls to make larger blocks of ice. They freeze and release easily. I am interested in seeing how much the $2 bins at Walmart cost now, three years after the post from Joe.
We installed a misting system. Didn't think of the swimming pools idea! Only turn it on at >90+ and only mist about every third nozzle otherwise the pen becomes a muddy mess. FYI high desert, 110 degree summers, in southern New Mexico.
A lot of folks do the same with the misting systems. I think the key is giving them access to something that can cool them down naturally. We've found this works for us without too many headaches!
I love the swimming pool idea, every year I buy those misting systems because they clog up because of the hard water, and I do lose chickens. I have 4 now I think one tub will be fine for me. I have the tractor 8x8 coop. Want to make your pallet coop next because my coop is slowly falling apart.
Thank you! We also live in a hot arid climate and are thinking about chickens. I notice you use carabiners to hold the tarps on. Genius. We've been using string. It has to be continually retied bc the strong winds tugging at the knots, by way of making the tarps flap, causes the knots to loosen.
Hey there! I haven't heard of that area before, need to Google it to see where you're located. 3 acres is a good amount of land. Right now we have just under that fenced in and for this season we should be able to add pigs and cattle (just a couple) to the mix. Send us pics if you don't mind! Our email is in the About tab here on RU-vid or you can reach us on FB and Insta.
15 years ago I started out with a swamp cooler they didn't last more than 2yrs. Gave up on that now I just dig a small hole fill it with water I do that twice a week. I also painted their roof with white roofing it does great keeping the coop cool. I have 5 left from the first bunch they lay eggs every two to three days
They really are resilient little guys and they're designed for heat, just not super high, dry heat that never stops!! I like the idea of the white paint on the tin roof. That definitely makes sense.
Hey Eric! Of the 4 varieties the Meiwa is probably the sweetest, but is also the smallest and has a lot of seeds. The Fukushu is a close second and the fruit is larger with fewer seeds.
Hello frm canada. Theres snow everywhere & ducks swimming in the unfrozen water. There r chkn running around in snow. Thank God birds dont loose heat thru their legs!!
Hey Adam! Wow, that is a completely different environment from what we have here. It's amazing to see how well adapted chickens are to be able to live in such varied weather!
Rose, that's a great suggestion. I know Lori has been wanting to grow Luffa. Just need to figure out irrigation as this time of year the last thing we want to do is hand water!
@@rosenixon2832 we have those on a bubbler system to water the rings around the trees. We do have some sweet potatoes that we planted just outside of those rings that seem to be doing ok, but we don't have a way of effectively moving that water closer to the fence. However, when we expand those watering rings this winter they'll definitely be close enough to the fence at that point to give that a shot!
We know just how nervous you're probably feeling, but they do better than you think with the heat as long as they can get out of the sun and have access to water. We have the shade cloth in our Amazon shop, so I'll link the one we use for you here; amzn.to/3wbMxcp
Could you dig the coup 8ft underground to access cooler temperatures? There could be a slope to an even deeper section for water run-off during a rainstorm...I have no expert with this. Just brainstorming.
Hey Stacy. I suppose you could, although that's a heck of a lot of work. My concern would be with monsoon storms and keeping the water out as well. We've had storms dump 3 inches of rain in a matter of hours, so it wouldn't happen often, but you'd need to plan for that. Maybe just an area for them to go into when there is no rain??
Just found you and love your advise. I live in Southern Nevada and have the same weather. I did the wading pools for my chickens, however my girls won’t go in it. How did you get your chickens to go in it? Thank you!
Hey Doreen. Once we're over 100 degrees regularly we start putting the pools out. We have not had to encourage them to go in, they simply walk into it. I think the clay bricks help with that as that's where they always stand, so you may want to keep the water right at the same level as the bricks so they get used to the feeling of the water.
Hey Julie, great questions. The blocks are there to place scraps into so they can compost down over time. The barrel is missing the bottom and is where we try to create a dust bath for them. However, they tend to make dust baths wherever they seem to see fit! We haven't done a complete tour of our setup, but we have done videos on most of what you see. You can find those in our Chickens play list here on RU-vid.
Do your leghorns lay thinner-shelled eggs than your other hens? The 2 we inherited are egg eaters because their shells just crack when they're laid. We've been supplementing calcium but so far it hasn't made much difference.
We don't have an issue with the shells on our birds, but we do supplement with free choice oyster shells. Between that and the regular layer feed that is enriched with calcium we seem to be ok. Are you using regular chicken feed?
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm All-flock with free access to calcium (ground eggshells, though we bought a bag of oyster shell yesterday). Nobody else (including the 2 EEs that came to us with them) has this problem but the leghorns. They lay such HUGE eggs compared to everyone else so I wonder if they just have some kind of weird production needs that I haven't figured out yet. Also I have no idea how old these 4 chickens are so I guess it could be age.
@tsimahei It's a shame that government gets their mitts into something as simple as owning a chicken. We're changing our tune on keeping a rooster after hearing stories of how important they can be to the function and protection of the flock. Haven't seen one in the new group of hens yet, so we will probably need to order one as part of the assortment next time around.
Great suggestion, we'll have to get a few shots of those now that they're coming out of dormancy. We're also going to be planting sugarcane along the West side as well which should give plenty of shade there also.
My niece has just started raising chickens and reads as much as she can to keep educating herself. We are in Oklahoma and battling the heat along with so many others. They are not mature yet and there are just 5 of them. She has the coop and run area under some shade but still has added some shade cloth where needed. She knows about the option of a kiddie pool with just a few inches or ice in it but she worries about them drinking nasty water. The pool needs to be emptied often but they still poop and want to drink the water. How bad is this and with just five chickens how often would you need to clean it? You said you clean your twice a week. Is it ok to use it every day?
The chickens will drink the mucky water from time to time, but they will also drink clean water as well. Usually ours drink from it for the first few hours and then just use it as standing water. We do at least top it off each day and we are usually cleaning them out every other day or so with as many chickens as we have now (30+).
The tubs with a couple of bricks looks like a better idea than the swimming pool. Easier to clean and manage where you could easily move from side to side from spot to spot. Thanks for your time and reply.
It is a dry heat, but so is your oven! But honestly, 90 degrees and near 100% humidity is really tough. I (Duane) used to travel to Ft. Lauderdale every few months for work and I was the biggest complainer about the weather during the summertime!
"... Which can be very very cold. It got down to 30 degrees!" Ha ha. That's absolutely very very cold. I'd hate to see him in an actual cold winter. I can't get my chickens to even go in the chicken pool with bricks or without or anything. They just stand there panting and miserable.
