Caring for Your Chickens During Summer

Summers can be brutal for your animals and caring for your chickens during extreme heat can be challenging. There are many illnesses and diseases to worry about and occasionally your birds will need your help! This post contains my top tips and links to those posts on caring for your chickens during summer. 

Keeping Chickens Cool in Summer

Chickens tolerate freezing weather better than 100-degree days. To help them on hot days, make sure they have plenty of fresh, cool water. Chickens won’t drink hot water. They will dunk their beak in cool water and vibrate their throat muscles so warm moisture will evaporate. 

I keep several waterers out to make sure they have plenty. By late afternoon, the waterer in the run is in direct sunlight so I’ll fill it up with ice water to help cool them down. 

I also offer frozen treats like grapes, blueberries, and watermelon to help cool them off. Another thing I do is freeze treats in muffin tins I’ll add fruit, kale, and mealworms then mix up an electrolyte solution, like Sav-a-chick, and cover. For more helpful tips and to read the full blog post, click here. 

Heat Stress in Chickens

Chickens don’t sweat like humans to cool themselves off. With extreme temps, your chickens are more prone to heat stress. Once the temperature hits 95 degrees, your birds could be in danger (on humid days the temp doesn’t have to be that high). 

Heat stress happens when chickens are unable to control their body temperature and get overheated. Chickens will extend their wings out from their body to allow airflow to cool them down. Remember, they have a down jacket on. They will also flap their wings to try and release hot air and get cool air between their feathers. 

But when it’s really hot, like I said earlier, they will pant to cool themselves off.

This behavior isn’t worrisome so what do you look for with heat stress?

• Rapid breathing
• Excessive panting or gasping
• Lethargy
• Staggering while walking or disoriented
• The comb is pale and flat
• Diarrhea

Prevention is key when dealing with heat stress. For more tips and what to look for, check out that blog post. 

Flystrike

During summer, one of the pests we deal with is flies! I try hard to pick up dog poop and any fruit or vegetables that fall to the ground but no matter how hard I try, we still get flies. This can become a problem for your chickens (or any other animal). Flystrike is where flies lay eggs in chicken poop or an open wound on the chicken’s body. When the eggs hatch, the maggots will feed on the chicken’s skin and internal organs. 

A couple of our chickens tend to have a poopy bottom. The feathers are thick and poop will stick to it. When I go out to feed them, I’ll try to visually inspect them. Usually, I do this during treat time when they all gather around trying to get something. 

Hazel had flystrike a few years ago and it’s something I never hope we go through again. It just about killed her. You can read about the story in that blog post. 

Problems with the Chicken’s Comb

If you have chickens, then you already know what the chicken’s comb is. The chicken’s comb can tell you a great deal about how they are doing and feeling. During extreme temps and caring for our chickens in summer, I keep a close eye on their comb. 

The main function of the comb is to control and maintain your chicken’s body temperature. It will release heat to help cool them off in summer. Chicken breeds with large combs, like Leghorns and Barred Rocks, do better in warm climates. 

The comb should be bright in color and not flat. A flat comb could be a sign of dehydration. Throughout the day, the comb may become lighter. Monitor your bird’s behavior. If they are acting fine and doing normal chicken things, they are fine, just make sure the color comes back by that evening or the next day. 

Some birds barely have a comb, these birds you will have to watch closely during summer. 

For more helpful tips about combs, be sure and read The Chicken’s Comb – What Exactly is It?

Keep Your Coop Smelling Fresh

Another thing we struggle with during the summer is keeping our coop smelling fresh. When things are hot and humid, your coop can quickly start to smell. A fresh-smelling coop will keep pests and predators away and keep your chickens happy. 

To keep the coop smelling fresh, you need to keep it clean and manage the poop. There are a number of products you can use that are in my blog post 

This year’s heat has been excruciating. We’ve had over 40 days of 100+ degree temps and over 60 days without rain and August has barely started. Hopefully, you’ve found some good tips you can implement on caring for your chickens during summer.