Chickens going for a swim

[gritsar]

My outside waterers are actually the trays off of feeders, leftover from the commercial broiler houses. They work great for outside waterers because they are about 18" in diameter and maybe 3" deep. I refill them several times daily from our well that is 350 ft. deep, so the water is always cold no matter how hot it gets.
Since our recent heatwave I've noticed that as soon as I refill them my chickens run over and stand in them. They are cooling their bodies by cooling the blood running thru their feet.
This gave me an idea. I dug out the old kiddie wading pool that we used as their brooder and filled it with about 4" of water. Now my chickens stand in it when they need to cool down instead of in the waterers. No more dirty waterers.

 

[Cats Critters]

Cute! did you get pictures of their wading?

 

[cheraboo]

What a neat idea! Yeah, where are the pics?

 

[gritsar]

I'll get pics as soon as I can outsmart them.
I look out the window and they are standing in the pool, so I grab the camera and open the door. But the minute I open the door they all jump out of the pool and come running to me looking for treats! Bunch of yard sharks!

 

[CarriBrown]

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Ain't that the truth! We call ours the "Terror Birds". They terrorize everything in the backyard.

 

[cmom]

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Mine do the same thing. I will try to sneak up on them to get a picture.

 

[Guinea Goonie]

I am glad to found this. A small kids pool with about 2 to 4 inches of fresh water everyday is a chickens life line in the extrem heat.

I found this just last summer. I also use a bigger kiddy pool for a waterer when I am gone for the day.

Here is a pic. Never mind the people they are friends that like to come over and feed the chickens and look at the miniatures.

The weird looking chicken on the left is my corgi.