Spread wing while sitting

[ChickenDaddy]

Hi All,

I am new to chickens, having bought 3 chicks this Spring. I do love them, and hadn't anticipated how much fun they'd be.

My question is, Why do the chickens sometimes sit with a wing spread out?
I don't have a pic, and they've started doing this in the last week. They'll sit down together, and each one will then spread out a wing to the ground, covering just one side.

Thanks

 

[ChickenDaddy]

Here is a pic of Chicken Chicken with the neighbor's cat

 

[jackiedon]

I don't know why they do it but mine do it too. Sometimes they even spread their legs out and it looks like they are dead. I guess they are just staying cool on these summer days.

jackie

 

[silkiechicken]

I call it chicken melting. I think they do it in the sun or in the shade just to relax, kind of like when you stretch out and relax.

 

[3homeschoolmom]

Mine all do it, too. Last year one of mine was doing it--leg and wing--and my mom was so sure it was dead or dying, she made me poke it with a stick!

It is awfully funny-looking!

 

[CoyoteMagic]

You ever been under a feather quilt?! It gets dang hot under them things!

Only place your chickens isn't coverd with feathers is it's feet and it's arm, err, wing pits! I've been told that it's like a built in ventilation system. Cooler air goes under the wing and cools down the blood that is going thru a major artery there in the, umm, pit =chicken air conditioning

 

[CarriBrown]

You mean this?

 

[JackieK318]

Hurry! Poke it with a stick!

I always hear that. It scared me to death too the first time I saw a chicken do this! Same with the sleepy duster (golden seabright someone posted a while back!)

 

[nychicks]

One of my chicks did this last week for the first time (they are four weeks old) and I freaked out. The other chicks were also pecking at it. I made my husband make sure it wasn't dying.....since then I have realized that they all do it. I have also noticed that they aren't really pecking at one another when they do this but it seems that they are cleaning off one anothers feathers???? They pick the pine shavings off and don't do the "mean" pecking that I have seen them do before.

 

[dreamgirl]

Yup, mine (13 weeks) all do it too, including cleaning each other. They also insist on laying right on top of or next to one another, even in this heat!