Summer's Heat, Lower Egg Production

[Routhfamilyfarm]

Hey Guys!


I know there's been a lot of talk and questions on the high temps and lower egg production. I too sell my eggs and am getting backed up orders. I have well ventilated coops good water supply, but the heat here has been relentless between 101-110 degrees. Is there anything else I can do like supplemental dieting? I read something on electrolytes and protein?

Also, I have 7 Americauna's that are of age and should've started laying but haven't. Will this affect their health?

Any advice?? Thank you!

 

[Routhfamilyfarm]

Yep heat is more stressful to chicken than cold weather. As much as possible I give my hens cold fresh water often, by freezing containers of water and adding it to waterers. I also feed them with watered/soaked feeds in shallow pans during this time (2x a day) making sure their getting enough liquid w/ food.

The freezing water and adding water to the food is a clever idea!! Thanks!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Heat is stressful. It dehydrated birds and eggs have a lot of water in them, so make sure you keep the water clean and fresh. Running a few fans can help too.

How old are your Americana? They aren't high production birds, and often can take longer to begin laying and can be sporadic layers. They will start when their body is ready to start.

 

[Spartan22]

Yep heat is more stressful to chicken than cold weather. As much as possible I give my hens cold fresh water often, by freezing containers of water and adding it to waterers. I also feed them with watered/soaked feeds in shallow pans during this time (2x a day) making sure their getting enough liquid w/ food.

 

[Routhfamilyfarm]

Heat is stressful. It dehydrated birds and eggs have a lot of water in them, so make sure you keep the water clean and fresh. Running a few fans can help too.

How old are your Americana? They aren't high production birds, and often can take longer to begin laying and can be sporadic layers. They will start when their body is ready to start.

Thank you for your reply. A few of My Americaunas just started laying so needless to say my stress levels are down a bit lol.

 

[Shezadandy]

Fans in the coop at night -- we've going through a nasty heat wave here in the NW- everyone's standing apart and panting -- hate that!

During the day, I've got a mister stand thing- those twisted PVC things that stand on the ground- anyways- ours leaks like nobody's business at the attachment, so I don't use it often, but during this hot weather that worked to our advantage. Eventually it started a slow moving stream - one of our girl's favorite past times is to drink water running over the dirt. It has provided a nice cool damp area with the mister in the shade, and a moving source of water that is continually cool that they love drinking from (despite all the crystal clear water they can drink in their waterer) and best of all, running over the ground. Maybe another idea would be to run a soaker hose in a shaded part of the run to create the same effect?