How important is direct sunlight to chicken health?

I found out that cats get most of their vitamin D from their cat food, not from licking their fur, although they get a small amount that way. Chickens get little to no vitamin D from preening.

When body oils are exposed to the sun, a precursor of vitamin D is produced, but it's extremely inefficient in chickens as a source of vitamin D.

As an aside, has anyone ever had a sunburned chicken? I had a hen who was stuck in molt for a year. She had a bare back that I had to spray sunscreen on after I saw her skin turning bright red from exposure. This was a daily exercise until finally feathers regrew.
Sunscreen isn't toxic to chickens? Didn't she ingest some of it when preening the surrounding area?

We have short hair dogs whose fur is very thin around their faces and we use My Dog Nose It sunscreen on their faces during the summer. It's non-toxic for dogs. Never thought of something similar for hens.
 
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I've lived down there where you are and worked in 117F temps for nine months out of the year, so I'm in sympathy for your chickens. At least one hour per day of direct sunlight will be plenty to absorb enough vitamin D.

As long as chickens have shade, they will be able to regulate how much heat they can handle from direct exposure by moving back and forth from sun to shade.

Here's a neat trick I learned from a desert ground squirrel, the little guys that look like chipmunks. If you dampen the ground where your chickens will be, the chickens can use that damp earth to shed the excess heat accumulating in their bodies. The laws of thermodynamics and entropy are that heat is drawn into cool.

I used to watch with admiration that tiny squirrel zipping around in 117F heat and pausing at each little bit of shady ground to prostrate itself to shed heat into that cooler spot. Here, on a 85F day, I dampen the dirt bathing area and my chickens sunbathe comfortably in the cool, damp dirt.
We do wet the ground in the runs during the hot months.

I hate those ground squirrels. The house I live in was empty for a while and they took over the entire property. We have an ongoing war with them. 🤬
 
Chickens get vitamin D both through their feathers and their skin.

Direct sunlight is the best way to make sure chickens get enough D. It can be tempting to just give them a D3 supplement, but since it's fat soluble, giving it in supplement form on a regular basis can cause toxicity. But if the sun is absent for long periods, bolstering their D levels temporarily with the supplement can help.
Thanks again, azygous. Your researching skills are amazing and very much appreciated! Happy New Year, Lady!
 
@EmmaDonovan sunscreen is okay on chickens as long as it doesn't contain zinc oxide. Besides, when I was using sunscreen on my Wyandotte Alice, she didn't have enough feathers to preen.

This was an excellent question. Thanks for asking.
 

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