Helping Beat The Summer Heat - Page 5

My 2 girls have been getting plenty of ice water, watermelon and cantaloupe. 

Is it a good idea or even safe to mix in some gatorade or powerade with there drinking water to give them some electrolytes? What would an acceptable dilution be for this? 12oz gatorade and the rest water to fill a 1 gallon water jug? 

Frozen blueberries and frozen peas are a hit with mine. Lots of watermelon too!

My property has alot of shady areas and the coop is in a very shady spot. Fresh cold water daily is a must.

The flock love to stand in the puddle created by the condensation pipe from my house that pulls all moisture out of my house. This water comes out icey cold. They will stand in it and even drink it.

Ice in water helps the water stay cold longer in the waters. Also, ice paks in zip lock bags placed in a can turned on its side will create a cool room for them. (the zip lock bags help keep the ice paks clean, if you are worried about em slipping put old rags or shavings over the ice paks just enough to help with footing)

I thought about the mister; however, I live in a humid climate and use the deep liter method. Our area is great for algea n such. As it is I have to schedule cleaning bi-annually. So this option is not so good for in my coop.

I'm using the smallest mister I could find with 1 nozzle. I put a shallow pan under it to collect the water and for the chics to stand in. I haven't seen them standing in it yet, but I'm at work all day. I turn if off in the evening and it drys out over night. My run is on an incline so it dries out very quickly. I'm going to buy a few more because they clog up fairly quickly and it looks to be a long hot summer.

Most of mine will eat crushed ice because they think it is food. Cools them right down so it does. After they eat a bunch they raise their neck feathers up, i assume its a chicken version of a brain freeze.

Quote:

Originally Posted by duckinnut 

Most of mine will eat crushed ice because they think it is food. Cools them right down so it does. After they eat a bunch they raise their neck feathers up, i assume its a chicken version of a brain freeze.

That's cute!

We have two box fans mounted on the ceiling inside the coop.  One points on the roost bar and one for the nest box area.  I can tell the chickens enjoy it because they will roost during the day, after they've had breakfast and a grooming session.

I think my birds are spoiled...

Quote:

Originally Posted by joan1708 

I'm using the smallest mister I could find with 1 nozzle. I put a shallow pan under it to collect the water and for the chics to stand in. I haven't seen them standing in it yet, but I'm at work all day. I turn if off in the evening and it drys out over night. My run is on an incline so it dries out very quickly. I'm going to buy a few more because they clog up fairly quickly and it looks to be a long hot summer.

I didn't leave the fan on last night, and the littler didn't dry out. Today it is starting to cook some and heat up which is NOT what I want. I'm going to have to get the wet litter out of there and put new bedding down and leave the fan on all night to get the litter to dry out at night if I want to use the mister. 

Got the Chicken A/C going! Frozen gallon of water with a fan on it. They seem to like it!

I left my flock outside, in a locked pen, instead of inside the coop where their perches are. Don't think they were very happy at first but it is cooler outside than inside. It has been so hot, they have been miserable. I have used the frozen jugs in a low horse feed tub so they can get in and cool off.
 

Had to put two frozen gallon h2o jugs in tin pie plates in the coop last night to cool things off, when i went to lock them up they were all crammed on one roost panting. I separated them onto two roosts and the jugs helped cool things down. Lots of ventilation windows but the air was still and stifling, with temps being 96 in the shade yesterday it was still 81degrees at 11pm. they were good during the day though eating leftover frozen trout crumbles