Gatorade????

[cutlerfam7]

All you have to use is Sav-a-Chick. That is what I use and its super easy! You just take a packet and put it with 1 gallon of water. My chickens always drink it and they are doing great! I also give them watermelon or other times of berries. They love it!

 

[Chris09]

Chris, I think we are both saying the same thing but in different ways. Yes, you have to follow the instructions (ratios) given on the label. If the label says you get 37% sodium with 8 oz of product to 1 gallon of water, but you wanted to make 10 gallons of water and still keep the 37% sodium, then you would need to put in ten 8 oz packs of the product into the 10 gallons of water. If you put in just one packet of product to 10 gallons of water then your sodium content in 10 gallons of water is only 3.7%.

I think we might be,
Basically with Durvet if you mixed 1 packet to 500 gallon of water your livestock would have to drink 500 gallons of water to ingest 37% sodium from that mix.
Or
If you mix 1 packet to 1 ton of feed than your livestock would have to ingest 1 ton of feed in order to get the extra 37% sodium that Durvet added.


Chris

 

[Chris09]

All you have to use is Sav-a-Chick. That is what I use and its super easy! You just take a packet and put it with 1 gallon of water. My chickens always drink it and they are doing great! I also give them watermelon or other times of berries. They love it!

The down fall with "Sav-a-Chick" is the cost, I can get a multi-specie type electrolyte that will make at least 500 gallons for the same price as 3 gallons of "Sav-a-Chick.
For me I have Poultry, Goats, Sheep, and Cattle, if I'm going to get a Electrolyte or a Medication I'm going to get one that can be used on everything.
"Sav-a-Chick" is nice if you have a few chicken and you don't go through a bunch of water but I have 50 to 100 birds out there and they will go through a lot of water in a day.


Chris

 

[cutlerfam7]

okay.

 

[flowerchic]

Thank you all for the tips. The watermelon tip made me hungry...;0) We've all heard of tea time with friends, well I guess it's melon time with the chickies!!!

 

[RedStarLady1207]

You can get a package of poultry electrolytes pretty cheap. I use it during the hottest part of summer.

I recommend folks use products for chickens. McMurray's sells their poultry electrolytes and they call it Quik Chic. I think it was under $5 for a package and you use 1 teaspoon per gallon of water. It keeps and can be used even if it gets hardened, but mine is rolled back up tight and a rubber-band around it and kept in a cool, dry place. Our local feed mill sells something called Sav-A-Chic in small 3-pack packages for 99 cents. It has vitamins and potassium mixed for chickens. Same stuff bascially as the Quik Chic.

I keep both on hand. I used a heavy, stainless steel flat bottomed bowl and mixed the Quik Chic powder in with cold tap water and then added ice cubes. They also had their regular waterer, but they sure went for the ice cold water. Also, full shade, and their regular food. We had those two days of intense temperatures and my 3 hens were open mouth breathing and hold their wings slightly out which is a sign the chickens are too hot. I also took the hose and misted the coop and top of the run and the general surrounding area, including myself. I even put a bit of mist on them (aiming for the combs). Real fine mist which evaporates quickly cooling the surrounding area.

I didn't feed them anything but their regular food so they didn't get all worked up chasing or competing for snacks or scratch treats which only would stress them more and make them hotter. My last resort was going to be to add a fan, but I didn't need to. Shade, cool water, chicken electrolytes and misting worked. They cooled off and settled down to rest in the shade. I have a solid covered run and an Ark coop but all is open at the bottom for wind/air. Under the shade trees it is way cooler. If you don't have trees, or can't move your coop, a fan would be good and maybe put some shade cloth up on top.

 

[Red Barn Farms]

Besides using Save a Chick in hot weather we also feed watermelon and it's rind or cantaloupe. A few times a week I'll hang a big head of cabbage or lettuce in their run for them to peek at. All this of course taken right out of the fridge so it's nice and cold. They seem to love this and wont stop peeking until its gone.

Everyone has pretty much went over other ways of keeping your flock happy and healthy in hot weather. Plenty of shade, change water often so it's cold, even adding ice cubes if you can. and air circulation is the main thing. I've been reading the following that it's good to use a water mister for your flock. It's also a good idea to water down the coop roof and walls and the run area. That will lower the temperature for awhile. I can see this happening but in very humid conditions wouldn't it make it harder for the chickens to breath? It's best to not feed treats such as corn and some scratch feeds during this time as it only makes them hotter from my understanding while reading other posts.

We're lucky to have a barn with a high roof which allows the interior to stay much cooler then the outside temp. 95 degrees outside and the barn is eighty degrees most days inside. We open all the barn doors during the day which allows a nice breeze to circulate throughout. Most of these hot days our flocks lay on the ground inside where the dirt is still very cool. We have one side in the barn where the dirt is very dry and another area where we keep it somewhat moist if they need to cool down more. They use both sides equally.

 

[hurricanerb]

I would stray away from giving your chickens anything but water to drink. When it's hot out, what they really like is shady areas. They have a way of "panting" as you regulate their internal temperature in the hotter months, so even being in the sun for many hours will not hurt them--but will certainly make them uncomfortable. I would not give my chickens anything but water to drink as the salts in something processed like Gatorade may have an adverse reaction.

 

[RedStarLady1207]

Chris - here is a website that sells bulk electrolytes for multiple animals in one product: https://www.bestvetsolutions.com/product.php?productid=179

Click on the tech sheet for the list of animals. It comes in 40 pound pails. I've never used it and know nothing about the company but seems to be at least what you are looking for.

 

[Chris09]

Chris - here is a website that sells bulk electrolytes for multiple animals in one product: https://www.bestvetsolutions.com/product.php?productid=179

Click on the tech sheet for the list of animals. It comes in 40 pound pails. I've never used it and know nothing about the company but seems to be at least what you are looking for.

Thanks for the link but I wasn't looking for a place to get Electrolytes in bulk. I get mine through the mill use.


Chris