handling heat

[marlowmanor]

This is our forcast for the weekend

With is being this hot how can we help the goats and chickens stay cool? The chicken area is shaded well and their waterer is kept full. The goats have their lot area which is pretty open but has a dog house for shelter out there, they also have the dog lot that is covered and pretty shady that they can hang out in too if they need to get out of the heat. They have 2 huge water buckets that we keep filled. One is out in the lot and one is in the shaded dog lot.

Watermelon is on sale at Food Lion this week and I have thought about getting a couple, cutting them up, freezing them and using those for treats over the weekend to help the critters cool down. Would this be a good idea?

Is there anything else I can do to help the critters through this heat wave.

I think the temps while we will be gone are supposed to be in the high 90s as well so I've hoping some of the ideas can be used while I am gone too.

 

[terrilhb]

For my goats I make sure they have plenty of cool water and shade. That is all I know to do for them. My chickens I freeze water bottles and put them around for them. The frozen treats are really good too. Lots of fresh cool water, shade. I also use cat litter pans and put water in them for the birds to stand in to cool their feet off. Hope this help some. Hopefully someone with more experience with goats will chime in. Good luck. Your temps look like what ours are going to be here in Ga too.

 

[crazyland]

We are supposed to be 105 fri-sun and then the heat index...
Wish the weather people would put up the heat index as it can be a lot hotter than what they tell you. I'll have everybody down by the water.

 

[Jerum]

Do you have running water to the goat area? If so you could get a faucet timer and some misters(like they have to cool you down in amusement parks). Set the timer to run for 10-15 mins every 2 hours or so. I'm sure the goats would learn to be there when they come on. The nice theing about misters is that they cool the air by evaporating and therefore don't leave a nasty mess when used.

Timers run around $30 and a mister setup can be had for around $20. The misters utilize low pressure, so they wouldn't put a dent in the well.
For about $50 plus an old garden hose, you could have some happy, cooled off creatures

 

[marlowmanor]

Do you have running water to the goat area? If so you could get a faucet timer and some misters(like they have to cool you down in amusement parks). Set the timer to run for 10-15 mins every 2 hours or so. I'm sure the goats would learn to be there when they come on. The nice theing about misters is that they cool the air by evaporating and therefore don't leave a nasty mess when used.

I've heard the mister idea for chickens before. I guess goats could enjoy it too. No running water to the goats though, well unless we were to hook up the water hose and leave it out there. I think if we did a mister though it would go to the chickens.

From the sound of it the goats will be okay with the shade and water access they have. DH just mentioned getting some bags of ice to put in the chicken and goat water buckets though.

I kind of wish my DH wouldn't think I was crazy if I mentioned shaving the goats! All we have is human clippers though so I don't know how well they would work even if we did try to shave them. I really think the boys would benefit from it since they are mostly black.

 

[marlowmanor]

We are supposed to be 105 fri-sun and then the heat index...
Wish the weather people would put up the heat index as it can be a lot hotter than what they tell you. I'll have everybody down by the water.

That forecast is directly from the Fox8 website. I don't think it consider the heat index though. It will likely feel a lot hotter than that. I'll have to water the garden again this weekend too with all this heat.

 

[Straw Hat Kikos]

This is our forcast for the weekend
http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/uploads/4667_forcast.png

With is being this hot how can we help the goats and chickens stay cool? The chicken area is shaded well and their waterer is kept full. The goats have their lot area which is pretty open but has a dog house for shelter out there, they also have the dog lot that is covered and pretty shady that they can hang out in too if they need to get out of the heat. They have 2 huge water buckets that we keep filled. One is out in the lot and one is in the shaded dog lot.

Watermelon is on sale at Food Lion this week and I have thought about getting a couple, cutting them up, freezing them and using those for treats over the weekend to help the critters cool down. Would this be a good idea?

Is there anything else I can do to help the critters through this heat wave.

I think the temps while we will be gone are supposed to be in the high 90s as well so I've hoping some of the ideas can be used while I am gone too.

As long as they have water and shade they should be good. At first I was like, "Hey it's the same temps here," but then remembered!! lol
You have Pygmys right? Well they are from Africa so they can take the heat. Like I said water and shade. Just keep an eye on them and make sure they don't get overheated.

 

[marlowmanor]

This is our forcast for the weekend
http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/uploads/4667_forcast.png

With is being this hot how can we help the goats and chickens stay cool? The chicken area is shaded well and their waterer is kept full. The goats have their lot area which is pretty open but has a dog house for shelter out there, they also have the dog lot that is covered and pretty shady that they can hang out in too if they need to get out of the heat. They have 2 huge water buckets that we keep filled. One is out in the lot and one is in the shaded dog lot.

Watermelon is on sale at Food Lion this week and I have thought about getting a couple, cutting them up, freezing them and using those for treats over the weekend to help the critters cool down. Would this be a good idea?

Is there anything else I can do to help the critters through this heat wave.

I think the temps while we will be gone are supposed to be in the high 90s as well so I've hoping some of the ideas can be used while I am gone too.

As long as they have water and shade they should be good. At first I was like, "Hey it's the same temps here," but then remembered!! lol
You have Pygmys right? Well they are from Africa so they can take the heat. Like I said water and shade. Just keep an eye on them and make sure they don't get overheated.

My doe is a pygmy, my wethers are pygerians (pygmy/ND cross). I guess I should be more worried about the chickens.

Yep, we aren't that far from each other so it's not too crazy that are temps are the same!

 

[Straw Hat Kikos]

lol Yep. I think that as long as they have water they should be fine. We're not doing anything special. I hope they all do fine. : )

 

[animalmom]

I don't think putting money into a misting system for your goats is worth it. Goats don't like to be wet. I've known two owners that put in misters for their goats and the goats not liking the mist.

I have a misting system in my bunny barn and it helps with the bunnies... but I've never experienced the 30 degree drop in temperature the misting systems promise.

Shade for the goats and lots of water to drink.

I second the idea of some shallow water for the chickens to get into and walk around in. I use the lid from a very large tote in my chicken yard... got to wash it out once a week, but it does seem to help.