Chicken lounging?

[rkelly01]

My buff Orpington Sinbad keep occasionally lounges around. She is not yet laying and is 19 weeks. Is this normal? She also runs around doing normal chicken stuff.

 

[kwells99]

Ahhh.. how cute. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Elyrian1]

My Buffs do that when it's hot outside, they're a little older than yours. My husband thinks it looks hilarious and I just keep an eye on them in case they start showing signs of heat trouble. My guess is that plastic(?) tub thing is cool to the touch and she's just enjoying it for a minute. Watch for wobbling, head hanging, lethargy in general. I did have to bring one girl into the garage (it's cooler in there during the day) for two days after she got a little too much heat and started acting funny. Caught it as soon as she started presenting symptoms and she has recovered nicely.

 

[rkelly01]

Thank you. It's 71 here right now, but I'm sure she just likes to cool herself.

 

[Patinas]

Mine do that in a sunny spot so I think they are just trying to soak up rays. I've read chickens need sunlight to help them absorb vitamin D/calcium if I remember correctly.

 

[Elyrian1]

That humans too... That's why we function so much better with at least twenty minutes of sun exposure per day. Drink all the milk in the world, it'll do you no good without sun! lol

Honestly hadn't thought about that with the chickens, but it makes sense.

 

[Chickassan]

That's the truth. They absolutely need sunlight to process vitamin D. I would think with them being so closely related to reptiles it would be even more of a necessity.

 

[BirdHead]

Very normal especially heavy feathered fowl on warm or hot days!

And cute spot to lay !

 

[Patinas]

Makes me wonder if they need a sun lamp in winter? Actually, maybe the whole concept of daylight = eggs also has to do with lack of sun to absorb Vitamin D/Caclium, thus less eggs? Maybe I'm overthinking this now! I just went off into the weeds! lol

 

[Elyrian1]

Because science! Haha, somebody on this forum needs a garage laboratory where they can do this kind of testing to answer all our burning questions about chickens. Calcium content in chickens with x amount of daylight exposure versus x amount of daylight. Minimum calcium content to produce eggs... etc.