Keeping Your Chickens Cool In The Summer
Keeping your chickens nice and cool in a hot summer can be a huge problem. I've seen so many threads here in BYC about how to keep your chickens cool. Here is the complete guide on how and what to do when your chickens get hot.
Keep A Few Ice Cubes In Their Water
Placing small amounts of ice in their water is a great idea to prevent the water from getting hot and disgusting. One good suggestion is to replace your waterer with dishes in the summer, so they could be easy to clean.
Frozen Water Bottle
Another suggestion I saw here on BYC is that you should freeze water in a water jug completely and place it in the coop run. Your chickens can lie down next to it to keep cool.
Frozen Treats
Who doesn't like a frozen treat on a hot day? However, you shouldn't feed your chickens ice cream. You can freeze fruits, like watermelon and bananas. You can also put chopped strawberries or other fruits and put them in ice cube makers. Pour water over the fruit and pop it in the freezer-- VOILA! You have yourself a chicken ice-pop! For further info, you can visit this link.
Pool Time
Another water idea is to fill up a baby pool with shallow water. Some chickens would love to go wading in a pool on a hot summer's day like us humans.
Spritzing Water
But... do your chickens hate water? If so, on every hot summer's day you should gently spritz a little amount of water in their coop and a bit on their feathers. It helps them cool off--another solution if they hate getting into the water.
Have Shade
Of course, a run without shade will cause heat. If you don't have a small tree or any other shade in your run, you can place umbrellas or parasols on either side of the run--a suggestion found on Google.
All of these are great ideas to prevent your chickens from heatstroke. So, there you go! How to keep a chicken cool and happy during the summer!
Further reading: Topic of the Week - Keeping Chickens Cool in Summer
