Today’s Run:  Walked the Dog

Summer is here and it is toasty hot.  Right now it is 97 F. and 58 % humidity.  The low humidity is what is making the heat bearable.  But my chickens do not get a reprieve from the warm weather.  As a matter of fact, until today, they did not even get any shade!

My chickens, as you already know, are in a tractor instead of a conventional coop.  The tractor allows me to relocate them each day so they have a fresh supply of grass and bugs to eat.  They really like it.   But I do not have much in the way of trees on my 2 acres of property for shade except for way down on the SW corner of our lot.

Today, we moved the chickens from the NE corner down to the SW corner.  What a production!  I had to climb into the tractor and snag a chicken, one by one, and hand them off to my husband who placed them in a pen I had constructed. He then rolled the tractor to the other side of our lot. The chickens were hot, panting and mad!

But yesterday, I learned a new trick for hot chickens…a way to cool them off, fast.

I had some old soda and some old water bottles.  I filled them up with water and placed them in the freezer until they were solid.  I then put them in the tractor for the hens.  After the hens were done satisfying their curiosity, what do you think they did with them?  They SAT on them!  Yup!!!  They cool their tail feathers and themselves by sitting on frozen soda bottles!  What a great idea~and easy~and inexpensive~Cool Beans!!!