We;ve had several days of appallingly hot weather.
I've been giving the Girls frozen peas in a small amount of water, in a washing up bowl (a washing up bowl used only for this purpose). I have to place it so that many beaks can get round it at any one time. They love it, and the Littlees try desperately to get in and have some too.
Yesterday I put out a second bowl, at the same time, in another part of the garden. That worked well, but I'm going through packets of peas really fast.
The Oldies are hogging the shaded places, and are chasing the Littlees away. I put out a couple of chairs, and rigged up a kind of bivouac cover, which gave them somewhere slightly shaded to rest. It looked like a very makeshift refugee camp.
I thought about getting a shade sail for them, but DH and I looked at where the sun's rays fall during the course of the day and realised it wasn't going to be practical.
I then thought about getting a cantilever parasol for them, which would be less annoying on the ground for us, and would be a bit more flexible. I found a couple of them for sale, for a reasonable price, fairly locally on FB Marketplace. The first one turned out to be sold. The second one, a bit further away, turned out to be sold by the time the first one had got back to me.
Because the problem is NOW, we decided to buy an inexpensive one, new, instead. And, in the meantime, we used the shade from our table umbrella to provide respite. I also ordered another one of the run shades that i'd bought the other day, as I thought I could cover one side of the run if necessary, to cast a cool shadow.
To my amazement and delight, the new one arrived this morning! I only ordered it yesterday, and it was meant to be on a 2-3 day delivery.
the maximum shade for as much of the day as possible, without having to keep adjusting it.
It's great! It's much better quality than I expected, and it's going to be fab all summer.
We took down the refugee camp, so it looks better there (still a load of bits and pieces to be cleared away). I left the chairs there for now because they provide physical protection for the Littlees from the Oldies.
The shade netting arrived as well, and I may put that up anyway. The weather is just so hot, the poor Littlees don't have big combs so are panting in their attempts to lose heat.
