How to Keep All Your Chickens Nice and Cool in the Summer

Chickens are rightly known as hardy and generally healthy birds, but even they can fall victim to dangerous weather conditions, particularly extremely high temperatures.

Depending on where you live, summer can mean dangerous days for your birds, as the mix of high temperatures, high humidity, and blazing direct sunlight results in dramatic heat stress and, sometimes, heat stroke in chickens. It’s scary stuff, but it doesn’t have to be if you take some common-sense steps to prevent that bad outcome.

Keep reading, and I’ll give you a list of things to do that will help keep your birds nice and cool all summer long. These are things that any chicken keeper can do, so let’s get right down to business.

Provide Lots of Shady Spots

This is an elementary tip, but one that is sometimes easy to forget. Chickens have to have shade, especially in places where there is a high sunshine index or really hot temperatures generally.

There are lots of ways to provide shade. A raised coop with room beneath can do it for a space-efficient setup, or you can just strategically position the coop and run where it will benefit from trees during the hottest parts of the day.

In a pinch, you can set up a tarp on poles or using some other material for the purpose. And make sure there is room enough for all birds to take shelter under it!

Ensure All Birds Have Access to Clean, Cool Water

Another straightforward tip, and arguably the most vital. All animals, every species and every breed, must have continual and unlimited access to fresh, clean water at all times. Unless you’re raising camels, I suppose!

Jokes aside, chickens are no different. They don’t need nearly as much water as larger critters like pigs and cows, but they still drink their fair share. It’s critical that you provide them not only an ample water supply but enough watering points to prevent squabbling and squawking when tempers flare as the mercury rises.

You should be periodically checking on water supplies throughout the day to ensure there have been no leaks and that they stay clean, and even drop a few ice cubes or freezer packs to keep it cool. At the very least, keep the water source shaded, constantly. It helps more than you might think.

Chill Their Water if You Can

One really nice thing you can do for your birds that will help them feel better and also cope with heat stress better is to chill their water.

Yes, this can be done easily but expensively through the use of refrigerated waterers and other devices, but a more expedient method is just to add a few ice cubes to their water source, more or less depending on how much the reservoir holds.

You don’t want to make the water truly ice-cold as that could potentially cause discomfort for them, but cool water will help to cool them down. Consider doing this during the hottest parts of the day when you check on their water or on especially hot days that the weathermen are calling for.

Keep the Dust Bath Clean and Tended

All keepers know that chickens take dust baths to stay clean. I’m not going into great detail on that except to say it’s helpful to keep their dust bath clean and well-stocked with any additives you might include like sand, DE, and so forth.

This is because chickens that stay clean stay cooler. Feathers that are in good shape better regulate a chicken’s body temperature in hot and cold weather. If your birds can’t get clean, they will get hotter!

Provide Heavier Meals Earlier in the Day

Seasoned keepers know that it’s important to feed birds more in the wintertime because that helps keep them warmer. This is because the highly active metabolism of chickens generates lots of heat during the digestion of food.

But we’re not talking about the wintertime; we’re talking about summer and staying cool. Remember this same factoid when the temperature is climbing, and give your birds their main meals earlier or much later in the day. They will heat up when they eat either way, so proper scheduling can help reduce this impact.

Give Them Frozen Treats

Just like chilling your flock’s water supply can help keep your birds a little bit cooler, chilled foods in the form of frozen treats can do the same. Logistically, this is going to be a bit more challenging for you, but it’s well worth it.

The best approach is to freeze softer foods that chickens can peck apart and eat as is; melons, especially watermelon, are my go-to favorite, but strawberries, raspberries, peas, and others can all work great too. Just remember to keep the portions controlled in keeping with a proper diet for your birds.

Provide Proper Ventilation in Coop

This is a biggie, and one that even sharp, attentive owners can get wrong. Chicken coops must be well-ventilated, partly because gases from chicken poop need somewhere to go, and partly because it helps keep the interior of the coop survivable and relatively comfortable.

This is something you must assess seasonally. If the coop is too ventilated in the wintertime, it will get cold. If it’s not ventilated enough in the summertime, it will be suffocatingly hot even well after sundown. Make sure vents stay clear, and consider the installation of screened louvers to provide additional airflow during the warm season.

Optimize Coop Features to Beat the Heat

While we are on the subject of coops, give it a once-over to see if there’s anything else you can improve about it. If your coop is painted a dark color, I urge you to consider a coat of white or some other light, pastel color that will help it stay a little cooler inside.

Light colors really do reflect a lot more heat! For a hasty solution, string up or lay a white tarp over the coop: that will reflect a ton of sun and save you some grief.

Another tip, one that my neighbor clued me in on, and I was embarrassed that I didn’t think about earlier: heat rises, and that means inside the coop, the upper reaches will be a lot hotter than those lower down.

Consider lowering roost bars a little bit so your birds can stay that much cooler when they are resting. This is an especially good idea if you have a tall coop in the first
place.

For Blazing Temps, Use Cooling Systems

Lastly, you can consider the nuclear option, of a sort. Set up a cheap patio misting system or a specialized bird mister for them to use.

A little bit of cool mist on even the hottest day can help to rapidly and safely lower their body temperature. Just make sure it doesn’t get the entire run wet, and position it so that birds can get away from it at will.

If that isn’t an option or not workable for you, a wide, shallow bird bath on the ground that chickens can wade in and dip their bellies in can be used to the same effect, but obviously, you’ll have to stay on top of keeping this clean, and it can make for a messier environment
overall.

Other good options include a solar-, battery- or other powered fan, or freezing icepacks or jugs of water and putting them out so chickens can lean or sit on them.

Administer Electrolytes

Chickens need electrolytes just like we do, and for the same reasons: proper cellular, muscle and nerve function, along with efficient balancing of moisture levels throughout their bodies. Luckily, it is easy to administer electrolytes to your birds if they are facing a very hot day or already zapped from the heat.

You can mix up a fresh batch of water for them with commercial electrolyte powder mixed in, or make your own from 2 tablespoons of salt and a teaspoon each of honey and baking soda dissolved into a gallon of room temp water.