Up until the introduction by Weeden of their Sprinkler System®, our industry didn’t have a good way to reduce the above negative points other than to attempt to drop the temperature within the facility while unfortunately increasing the humidity making it harder for the birds to cool themselves.
When the Weeden Sprinkler System® is activated, something unique happens - when the droplets hit the birds, they stand up. In fact within 10-20 seconds of sprinkling, the entire flock will stand up.
Captured heat is released when bird gets up (see infrared images below)
When the birds stand up, captured heat is released lowering the breast temperature of the birds. The birds are then left with water droplets on their backs and necks that together with today’s wind speeds, creates surface cooling or evaporative cooling off the birds themselves. We’re creating “artificial sweating” as we know birds and most animals don’t sweat. This is done without increasing the humidity within the facility due to the fact that the water droplets don’t hang in the air like the water from a fogger/misting system. Research has shown a 20% reduction in humidity compared to when a fogger/cool cell system is used for cooling.
(data taken from University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture, Research & Extensions paper called "Sprinklers Cool Birds and Conserve Water)