How Can you keep chickens cool in summer heat?

[Hanathehappyhen]

Summers here and it's getting hot so does anyone have some plans to share with me? I've tried hosing the coop,using sprinklers and misters,yogurt,ice,fropen fruit,smoothies. All of them seem to work but don't last very long. If you have any ways to keep them cool for longer please share with me. Thank you!

 

[Dr.GarryTTucker]

A couple things I do, put sunflower seeds in ice water and as they eat seeds they drink cold water.

I also put a brick in a tub with ice water.
The brick soaks up the water and as it evaporates it keeps them cold as they stand on it

 

[Criticalicious]

Mine love frozen peas and I freeze various treats in ice cubes. Fill up the waterer with ice cubes and encourage them to drink plenty of water. I also read, don't stress them out or bug them when it's hot. Let them hang out and chill.

 

[Kathy Golla]

Where do you live? I’m just trying to compare to where I live. We don’t have a lot of humidity.
This is my second summer.
The girls have a pen, some hens are heat tolerant, others not. I am learning by observing what each hen likes to do to stay cool. I have six hens.
Here is what my formula is right now:
Pour water into the holes they have already dug - mud holes
Put out a small shallow wading pool and put a frozen water bottle in it-most of my hens will wade now, their second summer
Box fan to create a breeze
Ice cubes in the waterer they like
Cold electrolytes from the fridge if it’s really hot. This seems to perk them up quite a bit. I only give them electrolytes when it’s above 90.
Misters when it gets above 95 degrees
Free range when it starts to cool off
Leave windows in the coop open and even a small fan on in the coop if the coop won’t cool down by the time it’s time to roost. I turn the fan off about 10 pm by unplugging it from outside the coop.
Interestingly, I used to feed them frozen treats when it was hot. Now I am realizing when it’s hot, they don’t eat a lot so the treats make up most of their diet for the day and that’s causing other problems. I have Kiki’s girls and rebrascora’s words in the back of my mind!
Their second year it seems to be going much better.

 

[Ohmyheart]

I have a couple fans for them. 2 inside the coop and one under the coop. I also get a container and put ice water with sunflower seeds in it. They love to go after the seeds, I have one hen who will stand in the water too.

 

[TheTwoRoos]

Just provide cool water and shade and they pretty much do the rest them self.On occasion I give something cold or put frozen water bottles into a dog bowl for them.

 

[ChirpyChicks1]

I do those same kind of things too. Cool fresh water throughout the day, frozen bottles of water, frozen veggies if needed, an area to dust bathe. My girls HATE my mister so I stopped wasting my time with that. Their run is under a tree so nice and shady. When I let them out of the run I put bowls of water throughout the property in shady spots.

My teens who are locked up inside the coop get fresh water throughout the day and I put a frozen water bottle in front of a fan to keep the area cooler.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Chickens can handle a bunch of hot and very humid air a long as they have shade. As a toe headed boy my mamma's family's hens all nooned under the house where there was plenty of shade as well as multiple dust wallows to cool off in. If the crops were laid by and when I wasn't fishing I was laying on my belly spying on the hens through a crack in the parlor floor. Hot, strong, direct, and unrelenting Sun light will kill an adult chicken in 5 minutes if it takes that long.

 

[Kathy Golla]

I was just thinking the same thing as criticalicious. If you get them trained to wade this summer they will probably use a kiddie pool next summer.
They like to see what they are jumping into, they like it to not be slippery on the bottom and I think a kiddie pool even with only a little water would seem deep to them right now.
I would try starting them with something very shallow, a large oil pan, water heater pan, shallow kitty litter pan, top of a storage tote. It will take them a while to learn to wade but after a while even the chickens who dont like water will wade to cool off. I put a frozen water bottle in the wading pool.

 

[Bekalodon]

Our chickens enjoy "wormsicles". We take dried mealworms, put them in an ice tray, add water, and freeze them. It makes a nice icy treat and it's good enrichment for them too!

They also enjoy frozen cantaloupe and watermelon, and have plenty of shady spots in their run. The other day we gave them a tub full of cold water to play with. We've seen all of them drink out of it, but so far only the Easter Egger has gotten in!