Heatwave chooks

[Nicos]

I’m just wondering how everyone’s chooks are coping in the heat?

We’ve provided ours with frozen fruit and cold water and although they have taken themselves out of the direct heat two of the eight were hiding outside. One of which was panting.
That one has just had a cool water dunk for a minute and it’s stopped panting.
They are now all safely locked in their cool granite coop.
At 42C it’s just too stressful for them to be outside, even in the shade, as the air is thick with heat.

We’ll pop them outside this evening for a while. Poor things are coping but I’m so glad this is only supposed to last today and maybe tomorrow.

Any tips from anyone please? We have 8 so don’t have space to have them indoors.

[Snoop Puss]

What I used to do was liberally wet a patch of ground in the shade and they would have a good scrape around and settle in that. Really made a big difference. Fruit as well, as that's got a lot of liquid and calories, as they didn't seem interested in eating their usual feed during day.

Edited to add: I started doing this when I spotted them taking refuge in among the tomato plants after scraping out nice little hollows for themselves in the damp soil.

One thing I never tried but might when we next have chickens is seeing if they might like a shallow pool for bathing in. Ordinary birds do, so maybe chickens would too?

[Plot70]

I have an all weather scratching place below a large water tank.
The space is popular with them.
It is hot enough to stop them laying.
I have added a low level water pot for them to dip there heads into.

[lottie dolly]

Mine like cuecumbers,also frozen peas and sweet corn in the drinking water,