Chicken Air Conditioning

Keeping Cool in the Heat, Hen-Style

While many people are stressed about the heat, we are keeping our chickens cool with some natural air conditioning. The heat index is well over 100F degrees. yet our girls aren’t even panting. How do we do it? Simple! We planted a grape arbor that provides shade along the north side of a privacy fence. The grapevine provides a space of dense shade that stays pretty cool, even on hot days. Though they have access to a much bigger area, this is where our girls collect on hot days.

On super-hot days, like today, we put a sprinkler on low, under the canopy of the grape vine. The result is total chicken luxury, even in the worst of weather.

Chickens in the picture from right to left: Josephine (grey-colored Australorp), Daphnie (bronze and brown Welsummer), Beatrice (buff-colored butt above and to the right of the sprinkler) and Bernadette (if you look really close, deep in the grape vine just above the sprinkler).