Good tips that you use to keep chickens cool in the summer when it is 100°

[3KillerBs]

Can a domestic chicken handle the same environment as their ancestors? Could it be like comparing a wolf to a Chihuahua? The breeds I have seem so much better adapted to cold temperatures. I wonder if some of their heat tolerance abilities have been bred out.

Not all though- I see their jungle instincts whenever I watch them slink into the forest. They definitely know where to find the cooler spots.

Breed matters.

If you need heat tolerance you need to look for clean legs and large single combs and to avoid extra-heavy feathering.

That said, Brahmas are weirdly heat-tolerant up to a point and while my Wyandotte struggles a bit, my son's pet Cochin is holding up well so far.

Source may matter. The Wyandotte is from a northern hatchery while the Cochin is from Texas. One has to assume that a southern breeding flock is automatically selected for heat tolerance.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Agree that Brahma are wierdly heat tolerant. My sense of the thing is that they are heat tolerant in the way that many desert cultures wear layers of clothing as protection against the heat - but its a COMPLETE guess on my part, with not a single bit of science to support it.

Even so, in my project birds, I'm trying to get rid of a lot of features that make a Brahma a Brahma - the feathered legs and pea comb in order to improve the heat tolerance of their offspring.

 

[3KillerBs]

Agree that Brahma are wierdly heat tolerant. My sense of the thing is that they are heat tolerant in the way that many desert cultures wear layers of clothing as protection against the heat - but its a COMPLETE guess on my part, with not a single bit of science to support it.

That's my guess as well. But likewise unscientific.

 

[Shadrach]

Can a domestic chicken handle the same environment as their ancestors? Could it be like comparing a wolf to a Chihuahua? The breeds I have seem so much better adapted to cold temperatures. I wonder if some of their heat tolerance abilities have been bred out.

Not all though- I see their jungle instincts whenever I watch them slink into the forest. They definitely know where to find the cooler spots.

I don't know.
I looked after Marans in what is considered hot temperatures and they were fine. Also Catalana del Pratts which are a large domestic breed.

There needs to be a distinction drawn between bred out and suppressed. Lots of chickens due to breeding and keeping arrangements have had many natural instincts suppressed but my experience has been that provide the right environment and many of these basic instincts become obvious. The environment dicates the behaviour has been a major stumbling block for behavioural studies for many years.

It would on the face of it look like evolution has made a terrible mistake with chickens. What was evolution thinking when it equiped birds that live in high temperatures and high humidity with feathers of all things.

However, what often gets overlooked is what those feathers can do. We, humans naturally look at all those feathers and think of down and warmth. The fact is they help thhe chicken keep cool as well. There are little feather type growth called filoplums and the orientation of the main feathers can be changed by the filoplums. This means that a chicken can arrange their feathers so that air circulates below the primary feathers. The primary feathers act as partial reflectors while air moves underneath them. Insulation works in both directions of heat transfer.
A uncomfotably hot chickens will hold its wings away from it's body to increase the air flow past the internal organs which otherwise are kept warm and protected by the wings.

There is a further problem of the physical effects of heat and cold. Chickens going into hypothermic shock just go quiet and die. We don't necessarily see any signs of distress. The cold hardy test seems to be based more around what does and doesn't kill the chicken and not much to do with comfort levels.
There is also the factor that chickens like most other species adapt to their environment to a greater or lesser degree. Breed land race chickens in a cold environment and the progeny tend to fare better than the parents.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I make a soupy mash and put water in the shade. If a bird is having a really hard time (usually my older girls or ones with other issues), I soak their legs and occasionally under their wings

 

[U_Stormcrow]

yes, and i have Brahma in hot humid FL. During the day, they act like all my other more heat tolerant breeds. Find shade, reduce activity to zero, dig a pit in the relatively cooler earth, spread the body across it to increase surface contact, sspread out a wing and bleed heat into the ground.

they can clearly endure it - but my smaller, clean legged, mor lightly feathered large comb birds can mantain a higher activity level in the same conditions, with less need to use the world's largest heat sink to lower their body temp.

Though again, all do so - the Brahma simply spend more time at it.

 

[Ccort]

I made ice cubes out of their wet mash. I spray dirt in run so they can dig down to it, mine won't do wading pool but they'll do MUD! I've heard of folks putting frozen water bottles in run for them to lay on.

Care to elaborate on the ice cube mash?

 

[Shadrach]

yes, and i have Brahma in hot humid FL. During the day, they act like all my other more heat tolerant breeds. Find shade, reduce activity to zero, dig a pit in the relatively cooler earth, spread the body across it to increase surface contact, sspread out a wing and bleed heat into the ground.

they can clearly endure it - but my smaller, clean legged, mor lightly feathered large comb birds can mantain a higher activity level in the same conditions, with less need to use the world's largest heat sink to lower their body temp.

Though again, all do so - the Brahma simply spend more time at it.

Is this not the case no matter what the ambient conditions are?
Big chickens tend to be less active than their smaller flighty couterparts?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

yes, seems to be the case in heat, which goes right back to man breeding for birds that are less heat tolerance than their ancient equivalents - because one of the things we have done as a species is try to add mass to our birds. OTOH, its my expectations that the larger birds would be more active in the cold. Based on the same physics. I just don't have cold to have actual first hand experience. The couple days we hit mid 20s this year, *I* wasn't going outside.

 

[Karianne]

I have recently started my flock with mostly Wyandottes, which aren't the most heat tolerant unfortunately. I don't live in the hottest place, but we do get quite extreme temperature changes.

My girls are only 16 weeks also, so I was quite worried when we got an early heat wave in spring of over 100f and extremely humid, and it had just been freezing cold and icy only a couple days before! I think those kind of extreme temperature changes are the most dangerous as they have not had a chance to build tolerance to it. That day they were panting hard, so they got frozen raspberries, ice, lots of cold water, etc., but I don't have any inclination to do that every day, all summer! Now they are getting older and the season has progressed they don't seem as bothered anymore. They have got used to the heat.

Most importantly I offer mine shade through a tarp on the run, which keeps it about 50 to 75% shaded, and also park their coop tractor underneath some mature apple trees for extra shade on hottest days right now. I refill their water with cool water at least once a day.

The chickens find their own ways to keep cool, which as others have mentioned is mostly just resting in the shade, and digging deep dust baths. My dogs do the same thing. The deep dirt is significantly cooler than air temperatures. In a shady spot the deep ground can feel cool for a very long time! I generally just leave them alone to nap and keep their bodies relaxed. I hate the heat too, so we are all on the same page!