Using A Tarp To Lower Ground Temperature

[HammerheadChick]

I was lucky enough to be gifted an old in-ground pool cover to put over our chicken run. It works great!

 

[Elspeth Dinsmore]

I was lucky enough to be gifted an old in-ground pool cover to put over our chicken run. It works great!

Wow! That looks phenomenal! I love it!

 

[talkinboutchickens]

I love your run!! Your chickens have it great
Great idea! I've only ever used a tarp in the winter time to stop the chilly air from blowing at my chickens, but I've never thought to use it in Summer.

 

[Elspeth Dinsmore]

I love your run!! Your chickens have it great
Great idea! I've only ever used a tarp in the winter time to stop the chilly air from blowing at my chickens, but I've never thought to use it in Summer.

Thanks so much!
We actually re-arranged our Aviary the other day and added some plants! They are really enjoying it.

We really appreciated Gtaus' pictures of the boxelders, and his description of how much his chickens enjoy them! In light of that, my mom went to the store to look for something similar. God provided these trees, that are supposed to be fast growing, 50% off at a store near us. They aren't the same ones that he had, but we are hoping they will work.

^^^ Tiff made these plant covers to protect the trees until they are larger enough to survive on their own.

 

[Cr4zyh0rs]

WoW, it got really hot didn't it!

Shade cloth comes in different filtering properties. I usually get 95% filtering, but it can still let quite a bit of light in.

Of course, it's not waterproof, so rain/water will filter through too, not sure if that's a problem or not for you.

Another name for this is “sun sail”. Stuff is amazing and very effective at ground cooling/shade, while allowing some sunlight, wind and rain.

 

[Elspeth Dinsmore]

Another name for this is “sun sail”. Stuff is amazing and very effective at ground cooling/shade, while allowing some sunlight, wind and rain.

Oh, thanks so much! That's helpful to know another name for it!

 

[Elspeth Dinsmore]

The shade cloth is doing a wonderful job at keeping the Aviary cool!

It was 97° on Friday.
In a very small sunny spot in the Aviary, it was 145° ground temperature.
In the shade it ranged from 90°-99°.
We have been hosing the Aviary down during the hottest part of the day, and that has dropped the temperature to about 85°.
In all, that means our efforts have dropped temperatures approximately 60° for ground temps. It's amazing!

Thanks again, y'all for all the suggestions and ideas! It helped so much.

Wyorp Rock mentioning the Privacy Screen Fencing was a massive help to us! I don't know what we would have done without it.
It reached almost 106° (air temp) here on Saturday and Sunday. Without that cloth above the Aviary, I can't imagine what the temps would have been. Thanks again, Wyorp Rock! We really appreciate it.

 

[Mike121]

Hello, all!
Today I discovered something that I wanted to share with everyone. With the sudden increase of temperature, my family was trying to figure out how to keep the chickens from overheating.

We have been taking frozen, sealed water bottles out to keep their water cold. We have been giving them little pools of water to stand in. And we have been given them frozen treats as well. But today my dad suggested throwing a tarp over the top of the chicken aviary. The run and coop have regular roofs. The aviary has netting and is under a tree.
I don't know why it hadn't occurred to me sooner, but it was a brilliant idea. It seems like such a small thing to do, yet it made a massive difference.

As we were setting it up, we kept commenting on how much cooler the shaded areas were. I thought maybe it had lowered the temperature by about 10 degrees or so.

Well, I took our soaping thermometer out and couldn't believe the numbers I was reading. Just 30 minutes after we set the tarp up, the ground had cooled by 40-50 degrees! Can you believe it?
It is 94 degrees right now. The ground outside was 130-140 degrees. I knew that ground would be hotter than air, but still, it shocked me how hot it was. The area under the tarp was 95-99 degrees. You can see in the photos that I had barely moved the thermometer. I checked all around to make sure these numbers were consistent. They sure were!
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The chickens came back into the aviary and immediately seemed very pleased with the new setup and the cooler temperatures. Plus we had a breeze coming through, so it was actually quite nice.

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I figured I would share this with everyone out there that is looking for a way to help their chickens handle the heat. I hope everyone has a nice day.

You are welcome to also share here the things that you have learned about keeping chickens cool in hot weather!

I just wanted to post here that I love this space! So much for the chickens to do, like a little chicken playground. I have a mission for this fall now! I've gotta get something like this built for my chickens!

 

[Elspeth Dinsmore]

I just wanted to post here that I love this space! So much for the chickens to do, like a little chicken playground. I have a mission for this fall now! I've gotta get something like this built for my chickens!

That is very kind of you to say!
We worked hard to give them lots of things in the Aviary. There were some kind people that helped us in another thread I made a while back. They suggested adding items to the Aviary for the chickens. The chickens love it! At some point in the future, when I have time, I was going to make an update in that thread about the things we built that the chickens really like and the things they didn't like as much.
Sorry for the late response! We have been very busy recently.

 

[RcoM]

All very useful info!
Currrently hot at 33 celsuis here. Some hens feel
It more than others