Celebrating Summer with my Chickens, 2023 – competition results!

Entrants were asked to submit their favourite photos of enjoying summer with their flock.

My vibrant chicken lovers' community, subscribers to my weekly Chicken Digest newsletter, shared photos capturing the joy, warmth, and vibrant spirit that spending summer with chickens represents for themselves and their family.

Anything and everything was covered: keeping cool with favourite treats, hanging out with children and grandchildren, wandering through a flower meadow – even shooting the breeze on a chicken swing!

The prizes were...

First prize: a set of chicken themed coffee mugs.

Prize for five runners up.

The results!

Before I share the winning pics, I'd like to extend a big "thank you" to everyone who entered.

There were 173 entries, and a total of nearly 700 votes!

The winners were chosen by three criteria:

• Number of votes recorded against the photo
• How well the pic reflected the theme of "Celebrating Summer"
• The person submitting the photo is a member of my Chicken Digest group.

Congratulations to the winners of the "Chickens in Summer" competition, 2023!

The overall winner, and recipient of the first prize of the mugs set, was...

Natasha Ruhland, with "Picachu's summer bonnet".

This pic of Natasha's delightful hen wearing a summer bonnet in the sunshine caught everyone's eye straight away. It was the most voted for pic of the whole competition – you can see why it was so appealing!

Natasha says:

"Here's Pikachu looking fancy on a beautiful summer day!"

Here are the five winners of Gail Damerow's 'Chicken Health Handbook'

The photos are listed in alphabetical order, by the surname of the person submitting them.

They were chosen by number of votes, and how well they give an impression of the joy that spending summer with chickens can bring.

Enjoy these lovely photos!

Karen Adler: Presley takes a ride!

In the heat of the summer, one way of keeping chickens cool is to make sure they don't need to move far to reach their water, for example.

Karen takes this one step further and gives her Silkie chicken a ride in a charming pram.

Karen says: 

"This is a summer buggy ride for Presley!"

Cheryl Davis: Selah and her best friend enjoying summer.

One of the things about keeping chickens I love to see most is parents, grandparents – and in this case, great-grandparents! – helping children understand the joys of caring for other living creatures.

Cheryl's photo of her great-granddaughter in her cute summer dress helping with the chickens is a great demonstration of this.

Cheryl says: 

"This is my great-granddaughter, Selah, holding Reba. They were enjoying a sunny summer afternoon".

Panka Koranyi: King Géza the First!

The importance of having shade for chickens during our hot summers is demonstrated in this photo. 

Who wouldn't want to have a King Géza in their flock?! 

Panka says: 

"Originally he was just Géza but later, due to his silly-but dominant and "kingly" behaviour and of course his funny hairdo that resembled a headdress or crown, he got the additional title to his name".

Kayla Mistic: 

Who doesn't love summer chicks? And Kayla's are so well behaved to sit quietly in the basket while she takes this oh-so-cute photo! 

Trees are also very useful for making sure your flock has welcome shade in the heat of the summer.

Kayla says:

"Here are my Opal Legbar chicks in the flowering crab apple tree".

Karen Sloan: the chicken and the eggs!

Summertime, and chickens are in full laying mode! Here, Karen's basket is full and her hens look proudly on at the end result of their hard work!

Karen says:

"This is my lady that hatched last summer, Berry. She lays beautiful blue eggs".

Thank you – that was fun!

Thanks again to everyone who joined in the fun and took the time to enter, vote, or tell family and friends all about it!

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all your photos, and it was genuinely incredibly  difficult to choose a small group of winners.

Let's do it all again in the autumn – make sure you're signed up to my "Chicken Digest" weekly newsletter to hear all about it!

In the meantime, always remember: in the world of chicken keeping, everyone's a winner!

Other competitions, and summer articles you'll find useful.