i put my babies outside today since its already 76 out at 11am, and they are out there panting! they are all about a month old, and their rabbit hutch play pen has a lid on it, so they are not sitting in the sun directly, and the breeze can go through the sides, but they are all sitting there panting and acting like it's 110 outside. i don't want to have to bring them back in, they stink and it's nice being able to sit in my room without smelling them! it's supposed to keep getting hotter though, is there anything i can do to keep them cool out there or just give in and bring them back inside- which is also 70 something but no panting in here... ??
If they are panting, yes. Their bodies are normally 104-106 degrees in tempature when fully feathered in normal weather. It must be hotter inside the rabbit hutch. When they are close together, they produce body heat, which will heat up the hutch. Ice in their water helps and so will a fan. It was 76 in the coop last night, but extremely humid and my brahma was panting. I brought her in to cool down and gave her a nice cool drink of ice water before putting her back to bed.
Mine are about 3 weeks old and have alot of feathers, and they stay outside in a brooder all day in the 95-100 degree weather, and they seem to be fine. I haven't seen them panting or anything, even in the humidity after a storm.
The inside temp of the rabbit hutch must be excessive. No way a chicken should be panting at 76 degrees. That said, panting is just their way of cooling off and not a danger sign at all. It is much like a human sweating. To survive hot weather without any problems, a chicken MUST HAVE: 1. Shade. Real shade, not just a piece of tin over their heads. That would act like an oven. 2. Ventilation. Moving out trapped hot air is a must. 3. Water. 4. Dirt to scratch in and dirt to bathe in. Cools them off. Do not let them sit on concrete in direct sun. Ever. In the desert southwest misting works. It does not work where there is high humidity, such as the deep south. There when it gets really, really hot, the large producers put fans on the chickens. You can do that too if it makes you feel better. However if there is a breeze going through you don't need the fan. You don't need to give them ice water or swimming pools. That works for humans but not so good for chickens. It is just a feel good kind of thing.
I am in the deep south where it is humid and I have a mister in part of my run. It drops the temps in that part of the run at least 10 degrees and I am certain that without it my chicks would be suffering. With it on they walk around and in it and never pant. It is not correct to state that misters will not work in the south.
What misters do is add humidity to the air. Humid air holds heat. Where I live in Mississippi the last thing you want to do is increase humidity. One of the reasons air conditioning works is because it removes humidity from the air. If you have dry air, as in the desert southwest, misters do help as it aids in evaporative cooling. As humans we think that getting wet cools us off because as the water on us evaporates it removes the heat from our skin. That doesn't work for chickens because they are covered with feathers which work like little raincoats. What is used by the commercial growers in the deep south is fans. Fans strong enough to ruffle the feathers on a chick and remove the heat. I have never seen misters used by the commercial growers here. Somehow over the years (probably because most of us now spend our time in air conditioning) we tend to start believing that we must also "cool" our livestock, forgetting that they have been outside in the heat for century upon century and know how to take care of themselves. Remember that the chicken derives from a tropical bird and to survive our heat in the deep south needs only: 1. Shade, under trees if possible. 2. Dirt underneath them for scratching and dirt baths which cool them. 3. Lots of water. Doesn't have to be cool. 4. Air circulation. The more the better. (This is where fans help>) The worst thing you can do for a chicken is to put it on concrete in direct sun.
