Keepin' Cool

We're not the only ones suffering from all the heat.  It's pretty tough on our chickens, especially when the temperature jumps suddenly with little acclimation time. To help them out, we have a fan on the floor of the barn on the hot days. Some chickens park themselves right in front of it, feathers ruffling in the breeze. We've been adding electrolytes to their water (like Gatorade for poultry), and set up the hose to create a fine spray out in the yard. The chickens take dust baths by digging a hole to get to some cool earth, then stretching out in it. We periodically spray down the yard with water to help keep the soil cooled down. We've also created some lean-to style shelters by stringing up shade cloth, as shown below.

The new chicks are doing well, despite the heat. (In fact, they probably like it.) We just created a separate area of the yard for them so they can explore the outdoors (with mother hen's supervision). Gotta get some new pictures!