Chicken Treat Recepies for Hot Weather?

[Nika B]

Hi!
We have been having 80-90 (F) degree weather consistently for the past week or so. I tried my normal ice cube approach, didn't seem to help, as my chickens were still walking around with their wings slightly out and beak open. Luckily, the weather is cooling down this week, but next week, it's right back up to 95, and I think my chickens deserve a cold nice treat when it heats back up again, does anyone have suggestions? Thanks!

 

[Mamas_Looney_Farm]

I give my girls water melons. I live in Texas so it can get pretty hot here. Water melon is juicy, brightly colored and tastes great to chickens. You can give them a whole on cut in half, rhines, or just pieces but it’ll be gone within an hour. It is kinda sugary so can also act as a sort of electrolyte ( it has in my case ) and they’ll love it. You can also freeze if you wish.

 

[Nika B]

Ok, thank you! I will try it!

 

[Mossy Dell]

They love fermented oats, and such oats are full of moisture. Use a bucket or a trash can and cover the desired amount with water. The oats really swell up overnight and are more palatable even that next day. They are fermenting good by 3 days and are even more palatable and nutritious.

 

[Aunt Angus]

It's in the 100s here this week. Here's what I've found for my girls:

1. Shallow pans of water all over the place. They walk in it and drink it. I find having more water all over the place encourages them to drink more.

2. As previously suggested, watermelons.

3. Chilled cucumber. My girls love cucumber.

4. A big box fan in the run.

5. Lots of shade. I've used beach umbrellas, tarps, patio tables. Trees are best. Preferable layers of shade.

6. Watering the run or the grass if your heat is a dry heat.

7. My girls' favorite is a sprinkler turned on very low just so the water bubbles out. They go nuts. I just let it soak the ground. They wade through the puddle, drink the water, and lay on the wet ground.

8. Big ol' blocks of ice or containers that are filled with water and then frozen. You can put the ice in a shallow container and just let it melt into drinking water. You can also lay the frozen containers in your run. Some chickens like to lay against them.

9. Some people say their chickens like misters. Mine were afraid of them! But only useful in dry climates.

10. Put electrolytes in their drinking water.

11. If your birds are really distressed, dunk them up to their necks in tepid (not too cold) water and let them air dry. This is what I do as a last ditch effort if they are becoming abnormally lethargic or overly heat stressed.

 

[NatJ]

You can get some of their regular food wet--they seem to think it's a treat, and of course they get extra water that way.

 

[RojoMarz]

My big blocks of ice also contain frozen peas. Since the peas are frozen in the ice, the chickens have a reason to keep going back to the ice.

 

[CatsandCrops]

I use those plastic tubs that organic mixed salad comes in as containers to freeze big blocks of ice. I'll throw in some veggie scraps before freezing and they peck at the ice to get the scraps, drink the water as it melts and lay against/around it. Depending if I'm home or not, I'll put one out in the morning and another out in the afternoon under their coop (deep shade throughout the whole day under there). If we're gone all day, I'll put both out in the morning and hope for the best.

In our woods, we found the top of a giant barrel cut off and use it as a small chicken pool. We'll fill it with about an inch of water and dump ice cubes into it. They'll wade through it, pick at the ice and randomly drink from it.

I also have a waterer in the run that I'll freeze a separate block of ice to go inside so as it melts, fresh cold water for them. We've already had two 100+ days which is rare for us in general so hopefully we're keeping them cool.