panting chickens?

[blueberrychickens]

It's hot & muggy today (as was yesterday) highs are in the 90's, the girls seem to be ok, but they are panting, standing around w/ beaks open, no wheezing sounds or anything. Is it normal for a chicken to pant when they are hot??? They have plenty of shade in the run & copius amounts of fresh h20.

 

[Lovable Chicks]

Mine R doing the same thing.

 

[featherz]

Yes, it is 100% normal. Mine pant every summer. As long as they have lots of water, shade and hopefully a breeze they should be OK. You can also add frozen fruit, a fan, and a lot of people use frozen water bottles as well that they can sit against. (Mine hate them for some reason).

 

[goldeneggtees]

Mine won't go anywhere near them either, they hate anything new. Except for their brand new nesting boxes, they loved those!!!!!

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[blueberrychickens]

good to hear its normal, I figured it was, poor girls, I'd hate to be wearing a down coat today!!

 

[ninabeast]

Mine have been scarfing down frozen chopped spinach.

 

[Judy]

Yes, mine pant, they also hold their wings a little away from their body. I can't get them to accept any form of water on the body or ice in bottles -- I've tried a number of things people talk about on here. Shade, breeze, fan -- they pant but they make it through. On really awful days I catch the ones I can and literally dunk them in a shallow pan of water, sloshing it all over their bellies and onto their necks. I wish they would catch on that this makes the panting and wing holding stop for a while. It helps that there is plenty of shady room for them to dig holes into the dirt -- I'll find half of them in a hole they've made.

 

[artsyrobin]

misters help and i found putting a frozen jug of water in front of the fan works too, they will sit right in front of that cool air, and they love icecubes in a pan of water...

 

[Sandy16]

also try slices of watermelon, yogurt, cold blueberries....our girls love all of those on hot days!

 

[Jerseycoop]

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Good to know!