Hot Feet, raised wings

[Spinster_Sister]

OK, sorry for the simple questions but I need someone to talk sense to me. I live in Southern California and the last few days it's been bloody hot! Well, hot for me is anything over 85 and it has been, anyway, I put my two girls into their outside run and even though I have a large orange tree on one side and have a piece of plywood propped against the other side of the run, they were panting, wings raised and had hot feet. The run is on grass, not concrete.

I don't think they sweat like us humans, but I thought those were signs of heat stress so I brought them into the bathroom and misted them with water. They seemed to like it as they didn't run, squack or rustle any. Their wings were open like they werent wearing anti persperant and panting like dogs. It did take about 15-20 minutes to close their beaks and lower their wings but their feet were hot! I just put them to bed and their feet were still quite warm.

Anyway, my family says I am spoiling my chickens way too much....I'm making wimps out of them. I am trying to harden them off for the warmer weather to come but I don't want to cook them in the meantime. Is there such a thing as spoiling them too much, literally? They eat primarily their feed but get occassional diced cucumber and mushed hard boiled egg with greek yogurt.

[They enjoy staying in the house roosting on the dog cage which makes clean up very easy for me.]


Believe me, if I could have them in the house full time I would but at this time that is not an option.

Help!

 

[chicmom]

I don't think so! (I love chickens so much though. LOL) You were right about them being too hot. Holding the wings out and panting is a definite sign of overheating. I would have done the same thing. Some people use fans to cool their barns. It gets very hot in Ohio during the summer 90s and extremely humid. I give them plenty of cold water to drink, and I have a garden every year. One thing that is nice for them when it's super hot is watermelon. They LOVE that.

I get poked fun at too....This fall when it first got very cold and rainy, I had a chicken with a cold and I took her and put her in a cage in my basement and ran a vicks vaporizer on her. She had sneezed, coughed and puffed up, and was very mucousy. I think I saved her life by doing that.

You're just being a good chicken mama!

 

[underground chickenman]

That's what they do when they are hot. They don't have sweat glands, so they hold their wings away from their bodies and pant like dogs. Even still, they can get overheated, but they can tolerate a fair amount of heat, and they can also be conditioned to the heat. That's not going to happen be running them in the house for a cold shower. Just keep an eye on them to make sure they are not in real distress and provide places where they can get out of the sun and where the air is not too still and they will be fine. I have a fan in my coop that I run year round to help with ventilation and air circulation. It doesn't blow directly on the roost and it seems to help in the summer heat.

Good luck.

UGCM

 

[Tala]

They seem to lose heat through their feet (like rabbits do through their ears) so I set a shallow pan of water out in the run with a big frozen jug of ice in the middle.

Of course, I only put out the cool footbath when it was 100*F . . . . so I do think you are pampering them when it's only 85

 

[KDbeads]

104* last fall when I entered back into chicken herding. Didn't have any overheating in mine.... Then again, that was kind of cool... much of summer saw 108*+