July heatwave

[JDonn127]

Is it ok to put ice in the water? Any other ideas for cooling my girls off will be helpful

 

[sourland]

Yes it is. Chilled/frozen fruits, shallow wading pools with ice, fans and shade for sure. Good luck in the heatwave.

 

[Zoegirlup]

Yup! I know that people put blocks of ice with fruit in it as well. I just put out some wine berries in ice water to help my poor girls. 110' is HOT.

 

[sourland]

110 F is totally miserable.

 

[CatsandCrops]

So. F'ing. Hot. My husband refused all southern locations when we were looking to move across the country due to the heat - here we are in Ohio and it's damn near 100 daily for the last month.

We've been freezing big blocks of ice (in the plastic containers salad greens come in - I save them all winter to use throughout the mini homestead) and laying them under the coop where it's deep shade all day. They lay next to or on them and that seems to help.

We have two waterers out at all times - the one we add a smaller ice block to (use a plastic container mushrooms came in) the one and ice cubes to ensure that's coldish water throughout the day. Every Sunday we've been giving them electrolytes in their outdoor waterer too. Like I said, it's been plus 90+ daily for at least a month so want to make sure they are staying hydrated.

We added an extra tarp to our covered run to add additional shade that stays throughout the day regardless of where the sun is at/what time of day it is.

I've also frozen random fruit/veggie scrapes inside of a bowl with water to dump into a small/shallow container we have as a "pool". They never step inside of it except to peck at whatever treats we throw in there so we don't really keep it filled.