Our Top Tips for Keeping Your Chickens Cool and Happy During the Hot Summer Months

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Create A Cool Shelter For Your Chickens

If you have pet chickens, you'll know that they are easy-going pets; chickens can be happy in almost any environment as long as they have a roof over their head and protection from predators. So, don't worry about building something extravagant. Just make sure their shelter is clean, secure, and comfortable for them to lay eggs and roost in. Remember that chickens can be vulnerable, so it is important to keep them safe and happy.

Moving your coop to a sheltered and shady area might be worth considering in the summer months, and if this is not realistic consider building a shade structure over the coop and run area. Our walk-in pet cages offer a great solution as they can be covered with a sunshade whilst also offering lots of secured pecking space for them to stretch their legs and dust bathe.

Provide Plenty of Fresh Water and Shade

If you are an experienced chicken owner then you know just how important it is to keep them healthy and happy. One of the best ways to do that is by providing them with plenty of fresh water every day. Fresh water helps keep your feathered friends hydrated, encourages good digestion, and prevents overheating.

Make sure to change the water daily to ensure that it's always clean and free from dirt and bacteria growth, during the hotter months
you should be replenishing water more frequently!

Ventilate Your Chickens Coop & Run

Providing a covered shady spot should not come at the expense of reducing ventilation, during warmer months ensure there is an adequate flow of air throughout your coop to ensure warm air does not build up to dangerous levels.

If you have covered their run space with a sail or shade cover make sure there is still airflow throughout, you can achieve this by ensuring the lower mesh is left uncovered so fresh air continues to move through the chicken run.

Provide Cool Treats & A Pace To Dust Bathe

Your chickens may want to eat a little less in the summer months and this is not something to worry about, you can provide super tasty frozen treats to help keep them hydrated and cool alongside their normal feed. Our favourites are frozen watermelon (perfect for stringing up for some added entertainment) and frozen corn on the cob.

In addition to these tasty treats ensuring access to a dust bath is a must for your chickens; pruning and preening are high on a chicken's list of priorities and in the summer months dust bathing is an important way for them to keep ‘clean’ and reduce the risk of parasites and infection. Creating a dust bath of fine, loose soil mixed with some sand in a shady spot is a sure-fire way to keep your chickens happy this summer.

Minimise Your Handling of Chickens on Hot Days

Chickens can become stressed easily and handling them on hot days can contribute to this through overheating. During the hotter part of the days try to minimise the amount of handling you do to ensure you don’t unnecessarily cause their body temp to rise.

Keeping Their Environment Clean

The warmer weather means you need to be more attentive to their coop, feed and water cleanliness. Keeping these fresh and clean is an absolute priority as bacteria can grow quickly, stagnant water will not be appealing and your birds will rely on this basic but necessary hydration to keep them well in our hot summers.

We hope our top tips for keeping your chickens cool and happy during summer has been useful, let us know if we’ve missed anything or if you have any secret tips or treats that your birds love in summer.

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