What your Chickens NEED for Summer

When setting out to create this blog, I wanted to make sure that we weren't just talking about America. (We're very ego centric over here.)

Right now the Northern Hemisphere is making its change to winter and the Southern Hemisphere is making its change to spring. We all learned this in primary school. Here are some tips and suggestions for both seasons. I will start with summer since we just came from that.

Summer with Chickens

It's so exciting, the weather is always something to look forward to after months of winter. Your chickens may not be looking forward to the heat. A chicken's core body temperature runs between 105-107F /40.5-41.6 C. Add in the fact they are wearing a fluffy, down duvet cover and it's going to be an uncomfortable time for them. We haven't even factored in the humidity levels of places yet. 

Water

Princess Leia grabs a drink of cool water

The best way to combat the heat is to have water available everywhere. You have to be careful though, if the water gets close to a chicken's body temperature, they will refuse to drink. Keeping water in shady areas so they don't need to hunt for it is the way to go. I had several drinkers throughout where the girls would stay during the day. Many of them I would freeze overnight so there would be ice water in the morning. I took plastic bottles and jugs and froze them. Then I stuck the frozen bottles in the drinkers.

Let's talk electrolytes. Yes they are important. Should you be giving these to your birds though? If the day was in the 100's/40's I would give them one drinker with electrolytes and the rest fresh water. I only did this if they were panting and had their wings drawn away from their sides. Sometimes electrolytes change the taste of the water. Chickens don't have many taste buds, but the water stays on their taste buds longer than food. I've seen chickens refuse to drink water that has electrolytes. The other thing is people don't give their birds enough credit. They know what they need. Giving them the only choice of electrolytes to drink can lead to an imbalance and let's face it...your birds are already stressed!

Food

Summer is not the time to do strange things with a chicken's diet. Calories are a measurement of energy. In this case, the energy causes heat. You might start to notice your chickens are eating less and not moving around as much. Neither would you if you were in 100F/37C weather in a giant coat that you can't take off. Adding extras like watermelon or fruits, while helpful can cause big issues if over done. I personally have frozen blueberries and put those in water. It forces the girls to drink, they are able to drink cool water, and the berries soak up extra water. However, I don't really want them eating extras in the summer because of calories burning up. I have also put ice in the water. They enjoyed playing and drinking the ice water. But again, you don't want them doing too much. I see the frozen trays with corn and things like that. A chicken's beak is sensitive and banging it around on the ice doesn't seem like it would feel great. Plus it burns calories.

Eggs

I haven't had much experience with eggs being laid in the heat. My gals started laying in August and while it's hot here in the Land of Pleasant Living, it's not as hot as July. Egg production will suffer during the heat. You will see it all. Rubber eggs, thin shells, shell-less eggs, or no eggs at all. Hens will be focused on dealing with surviving the heat, not reproducing (again calories burning!). Consider adding a bit of baking soda to your water (1/4c to every gallon). It will help with the electrolyte loss and it will help with replacing the calcium that is being lost or not ingested due to the heat. Again, make sure there are fresh, clean, and cool water options also available. Keep their diet as close to normal as possible. 

Poop💩

Poop...it's everywhere. We know this as chicken tenders. However, there is normal poop, and there is the watery heat created poops. A chicken will poop out what almost looks like diarrhea when hot. This is a cooling method called excretory heat transfer/loss. This is a good thing. One it means they are drinking water. Two, it means they are trying to cool themselves. You should be looking at your chickens' poop and know the difference between a healthy poo and an unhealthy one. However, if you see them pooping even more frequently and it's watery...they're cooling themselves and are drinking lots of water. 

What to do in an emergency

Most of us do not have access to a vet. When a chicken is in heat distress you might not have time on your side. Please do not cool them down too quickly. They are just like people in that respect. I kept an emergency bucket under a tree in the shade for emergencies. The water wasn't hot and it wasn't cold, lukewarm/tepid. If I saw my girls panting, wings held away from their body, and a weird comb/wattle color, they would get a dip in the pool. I would hold them with their feet in the water. Their feet are a cooling area and cooling those help cool the bird. If it had been severe, I would've dunked them in the bucket up to their neck. Thank goodness I didn't have to do that. Having a place for chickens to walk through water is always a welcome respite from the heat. Many chickens HATE water (unless it's raining and then good luck keeping them dry🙄 ) and will not willingly go into a wading pool. You can use a mister, but if you're like us, it doesn't help in the humid summer we experience. 

Coop Prep

You want all the ventilation. ALL OF IT. Put windows on all sides of your coop and have them wide open. There were days where the heat index was around 105 F/40 C. We had several fans going, the coop was completely open, nest box was propped open, doors open, and I even took the back off the coop and put up hardware cloth. We would hose down the roof of the coop when it was 110 F/43 C inside. We put up tarps to shade the coop (and will use them in the winter to wrap parts of it). Use sand for your litter. It will keep the stink down, absorb the moisture from the wet poop, and it actually acts as a cooling agent in the summer. Keep your fans running at night by your chickens. In winter drafts are an issue. In summer, that's not a bad thing to have in your coop. The airflow will help them when they are sleeping and unable to drink water. 

Place a thermometer in the the coop so you know what the temperature is inside!

The back wall comes off our coop and now has a giant flap window and a fan attached to the wall

Hopefully you have found this to be practical and useful information! I have done my research by reading books by Gail Damerow, Kathy Shea Mormino, and from just my own experience. 

I will cover how to deal with winter in my next post and how to winterize your coop.