Tag: ice

Mind the gap

On By CarynIn Life Hack

at the top of the bottles before you freeze them.

Water in jugs and bottles with a good air gap

Two of my water jugs developed leaks because the expansion of the ice popped the seams on the bottom. I learned the hard way to leave a sufficient air gap when filling them with water so the ice has room to expand. So I am now doing an experiment with different plastic drinking bottles to see which ones hold up to freezing. (It just happened that I am out of water jugs, and I had a variety of plastic bottles in the car. This is not really a planned experiment, but we will make the most of what we have.)

I like freezing the gallon jugs because the ice lasts a long time, even in the Texas heat. The smaller drinking bottles won’t be frozen as long, but they will last longer than regular sized ice cubes.

So hot.

On By CarynIn chickens
Combined screen shots of the nearest weather station and pictures of the thermometer in the chicken run

I did a little data collection. The high was forecast to be 100, and at 10:30am I was quite excited that the chicken’s runs were still in the 80s even though the nearest station was reading 95 degrees. Then 4pm happened. 102 degrees in the shade. Yuck.

Styrofoam AC with melted ice packs out and frozen ice packs in

I took ice out to the chickens twice and switched out the water in the foot baths four times. Although I had the styrofoam cooler filled with ice packs and the fan running, I feel like it is these foot baths that make the biggest difference for the chickens.

The chickens love the foot baths

Another telling thing is that almost all of the chickens’ feet feathers are wet. So they are taking turns cooling their heels.

Apple ice block

On By CarynIn chickens

I had an apple with some bruised parts, so I used a peeler and took it down to the core, put the shavings in one of the plastic bins and added water. After it was frozen solid, I offered it to the chickens on a hot summer afternoon. This one went over much better than the veggie block! By the evening, the only bits left in the bin were the actual peels, and the water was even still cool!

Apple ice block and water foot bath to keep the chickens cool

Frozen veggies

On By CarynIn chickens

My friend was kind to offer me an old toy organizer (with plastic bins on a wooden stand). At first I wasn’t sure where I was going to put it, and then I thought: I need it for the chickens! The small bins work well to make super-sized ice cubes, and I think the larger bins will work for the base of nesting boxes.

I put peas and carrots and herbs into a small bin, added some water, and froze it overnight. A little hot water on the base and the cube popped out. The chickens were wary (as usual with a new treat), so we put some meal worms on top. They loved that; the veggies not so much.

Herb and veggie ice block
Chickens eating off the mealworms

I think next time I will try a fruit ice block.

Keeping cool

On By CarynIn Coop

I took a gallon water jug, stuck it in the freezer, then put the frozen jug in the foot bath. There is still room for one chicken to get both feet in, and they all enjoy laying around the foot bath. And the ice lasted for hours, then I used the cool water to rinse refill the foot baths (because, ew, they get dirty fast).

Frozen water jug in the chicken foot bath

What with the ice cubes, ice packs for the cooler AC, and jugs, we had to start up the large freezer in the garage.