Everything You Need To Know About Summer Caring For Chicken.

 Alright, so today we are going to talk about Summer Care -Caring  for Chickens in the High Summer Heat.

 It is very important to care for your chickens in the summer heat. Much more important even the winter. So as you can see our chickens, it is pretty warm . It  Getting near one-hundred degrees now, and they are already starting to slightly pant, and that is a normal thing for the summer. But, anytime it's over about90 degrees or 85 degrees and up, is the time to really pay attention to your chickens. They can have heat stroke, heat-induced stress, or even death can occur when they become overheated Now, their normal body temperature is usually104°F to 107°F, is their normal chicken body temperature. The chickens they do NOT sweat, they pant, just like a dog does. And  they lose their heat through their comb, waddle; like a radiator and is released through there, usually. And they also can release their heat from their legs, droppings, and lightly of the spreading of their wings.

 They will open their wing a little bit and breeze comes through there as well. Now, they also like, cool down in their dust bath. If you have seen my previous video The" Dust Bath" the chicken will cool themselves down by digging down into the soil, and the  dirt and cool themselves off also. Now they will eat much less during the hot summer time They will drink much more They will find naturally, on their own, find a lot more shaded spaces to sleep and rest and they will forage much less and may slow down or even stop laying eggs in the summer.

 Now the heavy-bodied breads, like cooler weather more. These are like the heritage type breeds. All of our chickens here are a heritage type heavy-bodied chicken The light-bodied chicken is more like a Mediterranean type birds, similar to like a Leghorn. And they will do much better in a warmer climate So make sure you give them plenty of space to sleep in their house at night They don't want to be all crammed-up inside there, they will put off a lot of body heat, so make sure there is plenty of space for them to sleep and have your coop also vented for heat and to vent out the heat and moisture inside Also most definitely think about where you are going to put your chicken coop and run, as we have, when we put it up here we put it under the tree next to the fence and most of this is shaded throughout the day here as you can see, some of it is in the sun, but you can also put a roof or covering over some of the run as we have done here as well. On the back side of the run is all covered for shade.

 So make sure also there is plenty of good airflow, windows or fans you can even put in the coop as you can see here we have some vents on the top here and also on the sides Now as far as feeding the chickens in the summertime, Do not give them any corn and no scratch. So the scratch and the corn, do not use these in the summer. This is much slower to break down in their body system, and will actually heat up their bodies as it breaks down, much better for the winter time It is better to give them melons or berries and freeze them as well to keep them cool. Also leafy greens they will use the water out of the leafy greens cool them down as well.

 We still give our chicken the layer feed as we normally do all year long free-range free-choice whenever they want to come to it. We do not give them the scratch or the corn in the summer, as well as the treats that they love. The mealworms, they go crazy for, limit these as much as possible as well as the sunflower seeds and safflower seeds One thing also, do not use apple cider vinegar in the summertime. A lot of people like to use this in the water add it to the water, but during the summer do not add apple cider vinegar, instead you may want to use some electrolytes. 

This is what we use for ours to keep them cool and hydrated through the summer as well This will help them keep... it's like Gatorade for chickens, pretty much. So this is a really great item to use in your water One thing to keep in mind in water, I like this one-galloon water I have here. It is easy to measure the electrolytes and we frequently change the water anyways, so there is no worry of running out of water here. As you can see we have the electrolytes added as well as ice this is nice and cold water. Your chickens will not drink hot or warm water, they will for surely run to this cold water during the summer. 

Also as you can see here we have it in a shaded area under a nice big mulberry tree Another watering option in the summer that is really great is this, get one of these insulated coolers here, and you can get one of these attachments, this is a nipple watering system and you can fill this up this thermos with ice cold water This thing will keep cool all day, and put under a shaded area and they will have nice ice cold water all day long in a setup like this. So this is something to think keep that in the shade and you will have nice, fresh cold water all throughout summer for your chickens AS you can see here's one kind a laying in the dirt in the dust bath trying to keep cool in the shade Very important to keep your chicken cool also the water, make sure you keep it clean. Pathogens are very active in the summer time so they need to be clean and cool and change very frequently to prevent any disease or illnesses to your hens.

 Now to spot overheating, if they are gasping or there is a labored panting they're not moving, lethargic, staggering, there is a constant wing spreading. The wings are spread constantly all the time then it is probably time to take some action. One way is you can wrap them in a cool wet towel. Or also submerge them in cool, but not cold water all the way down to their neck to bring their temperature down. So make sure do not overheat you don't want to give them shock. So as you can see out here we have a lot of vegetation and plants around our shed here and our chickens love this. They are out here most of the day under all of this foliage and if I can get closer to show you, you can kind a see them all laying underneath here and they are just chilling out under all of this shaded area where it is nice and cool. One thing you can also do it to hose down any areas where they stay in the summertime to keep the soil, and the air much cooler as evaporative cooling will do. So they love watermelon, this is a great way to cool them down, ice cold. They will come over here and they will just eat this whole thing up and the way down to the rind.

 This is a great easy way for them to cool down in the summertime It's not easy caring for chicken in the high heat conditions, but a little bit of adjustments can make a big difference in their comfort level and their ability to survive the summer. So make to really think about caring for your chickens and hens in the extreme heat of the summertime. This is when most amount of problems will occur in the summer from overheating. So, thanks for reading my content .Make it a great day!