It's HOT! Will they use a pool?

[mdbokc]

Running the mister DOES NOT lower the humidity. When the humidity is lower, 35% or so, the evaporation rate of the mist is so rapid that the air temperature drops. The misters do not have the same cooling effect when humidity is high, > 50%. Still works but not as effective.

My apologies for not being clear on the humidity aspect. Here, we live on a climate dividing live, so to speak. Our humidity varies from 15% to 90% depending upon the climate presently in control. West of us is always dry....east of us is always wet.

 

[TexGardenGirl]

Mine will stand in a shallow pan of water - we use some that are about 3 inches deep and 16 inches diameter (got from Lowe's or HD for making concrete stepping stones). Also a large plant saucer works, though deep ones are harder to find. They love the pans so much we bought a kiddie pool last year but they never got in, even when it's only 3 inches deep like their pans - I guess they don't like the high sides. I even tried placing makeshift steps to it but they're just stubborn. They do drink out of it, though, so I use it for that. And kiddie pools are pretty cheap so it's worth a try. (Plus later when you decide to get ducks you'll have the pool already.

Misters are great too - they will stand in the mist to the point it gets their feathers wet. (As already mentioned, don't let it get near their feed.) I used a mister a couple years ago (our first chicken year). Again, we got it from HD or Lowe's, or maybe Wal-mart - it is about 2.5 feet high, made of rigid plastic in a twisty shape so it stands on its own, and you attach the hose to it. It has 2 little water holes with screw-in misters, so you can remove & clean them if necessary. I really liked it but learned the hard way - do not hold up the little screw to the strong water spray to rinse it - this will blow the screw across the yard and you will never find it again (I searched methodically for hours. I'll probably find it 20 years from now.) Anyway, if I see one again I'd buy another, it was a good product. $10-15.

I did try using a sprinkler at first, but the drops are a little too big for them to want to stand under it, plus it just uses too much water. But if you're sprinkling the yard anyway and don't mind giving the chickens access to it, some of them might enjoy it. (Though if you live in a hot dry area where water usage is an issue, you shouldn't be watering at the hottest time of day anyway, so it's maybe not as helpful.)

ETA: I just went back and looked to see the OP is from Florida. I imagine most of Florida is considerably more humid than we are here in inland Texas, so misting might be somewhat less effective and you might want to focus on the other strategies more (including pans or pools of water, kept cool.) Good luck!