Creating shade for chickens in a small space in cellar?

[Maton1]

Hi. Had a question. As the temps begin to rise we were considering some ways to create some shade for our chickens. We have no trees or natural shade so we'd have to create something artificial. We also considered opening up a little space in a cellar area next to the chicken run that isn't being used for anything. The chickens could run into in there heat of the day since it's dark and quit a bit cooler. The only concern is that since a lot of light doesn't get into this cellar and I saw that it's a little damp in some areas although that might improve with opening it up and making a small place for them to rest during the afternoon (with hay, etc). It's definitely nice and cool but I'm concerned that because a lot of light doesn't enter in there that it will eventually mean problems with lice and fleas. Someone told me that their Father used to keep chickens in a Cellar and they were always full of lice as well as the father also.
On the positive it would certainly be a place they could get out of the sun where the temps would be 5 degrees or so more cooler. Or would still a better option be to drop the cellar idea and make some shade with tarps outside,,,,,or we also have a grapevine next to the coop that I could retrain to grow over the run. I just don't know if it would create enough deep shade or not (?) Our temps can get into the 90's (rarely in the 100's), with sometimes 70-80 + humidity, especially around July/August. thanks

 

[ChickenCanoe]

What is your location? Can you plant trees or large shrubs for shade? You could just use shade cloth (90%) or just a roof and one south wall if you are in the northern hemisphere.
It is always humid here and can go from negative 19F to 110F all in the same year.