{"id":31646,"date":"2020-08-12T11:36:58","date_gmt":"2020-08-12T11:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/?p=31646"},"modified":"2020-08-12T11:36:58","modified_gmt":"2020-08-12T11:36:58","slug":"helping-the-girls-to-stay-cool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/?p=31646","title":{"rendered":"Helping the girls to stay cool"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We have been experiencing a heat wave this week. Ebony and Flame have been feeling the heat and were panting with beaks open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I gave the girls dishes of mash in plenty of cold water and some frozen spinach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have tried putting trays of cold water in the run in the past for them to stand in to cool off but chickens don’t really want to stand in water. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I then had a brain wave. I poured watering cans of water in various shady areas in the run. The girls immediately went to scratch in the damp dirt. I thought this would cool their feet. The girls seem to really like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Speckles standing in the damp soil<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Flame scratching and pecking<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Smoke scratching<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Salmon joins Speckles and Ebony scratches in another patch behind them<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Marmite joins in<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I will be doing this every afternoon while it’s hot. Last night at dusk I checked on the girls in the chicken shed. It was still hot and Ebony was standing on the perch with her wings held aloft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I decided to prop the chicken shed door open as our run is very secure and the open shed door is hidden behind solid fence panels. I also poured a watering can of water over the patio area outside the open door to help it cool a bit more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will keep the chicken shed door propped open until this heat wave breaks. I hope it will cool down a bit soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have been experiencing a heat wave this week. Ebony and Flame have been feeling the heat and were panting with beaks open. I gave the girls dishes of mash in plenty of cold water and some frozen spinach. I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31646"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31646"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31684,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31646\/revisions\/31684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}