Hot Weather Care for Chickens - Part 1

Hot Weather Care for your Chickens

There are some quite simple things that can be done to protect and care for chickens during hot weather.  By hot weather I mean around 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) or above during the day.  Chickens cope well with temperatures in the late 20's (late 70's to low 80's in Fahrenheit) but when temperatures start to creep into the 30's, that's when troubles can begin.  Especially when night time temperatures are also very warm on top of those in the day time.  It gives the chickens no reprieve and starts to wear them down. 

 

Water Supply

 

Supply & Location

Have at least 2 containers of water located in different parts of the pen, so that at least one water source is in the shade throughout the day.  I have one container on the west boundary and one up against the laying coop on the south boundary.  This means that the hens have at least one source of cool water available to them at all times.  Keeping the water against the fence or against the walls of the coop, also helps prevent the hens knocking it over.  

Jewel & Farrah (left to right)

Avoid Knock-Overs

Use sturdy, heavy water containers that the hens can not easily knock over.  Half a clean brick in a clean, large, plastic container is a great, cheap option.   

A Plentiful Supply

Fill the containers up nice and high - the pen should have several litres or at least half a gallon of water available at minimum.  

Easily Accessible

The hens should be able to easily access the water - if the water container is very tall, shorter hens may not be able to reach it.  Some water containers provide such a small area of accessible water that the chickens have to try much, much harder to get a decent drink then they should have to.  The hen should be able to plunge her beak deeply into the water to easily get large mouthfuls as they need them.

Alice

Ice Blocks

Fill clean, small, ex drink bottles 3/4 full of water, put the lid tightly on and freeze them.  You can then put the frozen bottles into the water container to keep the water supply extra cold for a few extra hours.  The small soft drink and water bottles that everyone seems to throw away after one use are ideal.  Plus you can throw them out into recycling if they begin to get a little tired looking and easily get a new replacement bottle with almost no effort.  

Keep it Clean

Keep your containers and any objects you use to keep the containers in place eg. bricks etc, clean and free from slimy build up.  Water born bacteria can and will eventually make your chickens sick if left unattended.  
You can clean out containers by blasting them with the garden hose on high pressure, scrubbing them with a scrubbing brush or  old toothbrush for fine detailing or rubbing them all over with clean, coarse, wet sand - and giving them a good rinse with clean water afterwards. A bottle brush like the kind used for babies bottles are a good option for glass or expensive water bottles.  I'd recommend using the large size soft drink bottles which can be recycled and easily replaced once they become a bit green inside.  

See also my review on the best water container for chickens
 

Farrah

Best Water Container for Chickens - Flowmatic Feeder-Drinker

Best Water Container for Chickens - Flowmatic Feeder-Drinker

I am a HUGE fan of the Flowmatic Feeder-Drinker (pictured below) as our preferred water container for the chickens.  The last few I have bought have been from ebay for $6.00 each (postage additional).  They come in a variety of colours and I have bought new ones as we now use them for the dogs outside water containers and after 6 - 8 years the Flowmatic bowls can get a bit tired looking. 

The reason I prefer them is that they are just the base, the vessel that holds the actual water is a plastic soft drink bottle - 1.25 litre size, 2 litre size (depends on how many hens you have), they all seem to fit.  I have noticed that Coke have changed their bottles to a flimsy plastic with a tiny neck so I tend to use anything but their bottles now.  When the soft drink bottle gets a bit old and dirty, I can opt to throw it out (if I choose not to clean it) and replace it with a brand new one - the old one getting recycled as part of our council's bin collection scheme.  The label of the Flowmatic says that a glass, flagon bottle will also fit but I've never had one to try it out. 

The other benefit is that I can keep the lid of the soft drink bottle and in the Summer time I fill up the bottle half way with water, put the lid on to avoid spills, freeze it overnight, the next day I remove the cap, top the bottle up with fresh tap water and insert it into the Flowmatic - thereby giving the girls really cold water for hours at a time. 

I have also found mini plastic drink bottles which I fill completely with water, freeze and then put in the base (bowl) of the Flowmatic to keep the water chilled.  This is a good system if I haven't already organised the main, large soft drink bottle into the freezer the night before - it's also a better option this way if you have a small freezer space. 

I clean the Flowmatic bowl with the garden hose on a high and strong spray setting, with the bowl on the ground so I don't get a bath at the same time - it removes the majority of any built up slimy substances within a few seconds.  An old toothbrush, brushed around the area where the bottle spout is inserted, finishes the job really nicely - no soap, just water and the brush.  It only takes a few minutes to bring it up to near new again.  I find I can spray it with the hose every 1 - 2 weeks (usually when I replace or refill the soft drink bottle) and get the brush onto it every 1 to 2 months. A clean handful of wet, grainy sand, rubbed all over the Flowmatic also does a great job at cleaning off the grime - well rinsed off afterwards of course. 

In the Summer we keep 2 to 3 Flowmatics in the pen in different locations, so that at all times the hens have access to at least one source of water that is out of the direct sun light and therefore not boiling hot once the ice has melted. 

I'm not saying other drinkers are poor but this is the best one I have found so far - cheap, easy to keep clean, large bowl for easy access for the hen (they don't bend their neck awkwardly to the side when taking a drink), stable (we keep ours on flat ground against the fence line and we have never had one tip over) and they last for years and years. 

Flowmatic Feeder-Drinker - available on ebay and many other sites.