Dolores 0:27

Who's got chickens? Who's got quail? Who's got hatch rates off the scale? From brooders, coops, and mystery birds. You're listening to poultry nerds, talking eggs and talking birds. Science stories, tips you've heard. Welcome to The Poultry Nerds I have seen a lot of posts where people talk about their chickens being hot and panting and that kind of stuff, and, you know, people say frozen fruit, This ice water, this kind of stuff, and there's always at least one comment, It'll kill 'em." You know, I have to tell our listeners that you were in charge of doing the topic and the, and the slideshow and everything this week because I was busy.

1:19

But, and you don't know this, but my, my blog that's coming out, well, when this airs it'll be last week, so last week, um, is on heat stress. Well, it'll tie right in together. It will. What a concept.

Dolores 1:33

I have seen a lot of posts where people talk about their chickens being hot and panting and that kind of stuff, and, you know, people say frozen fruit, ice water, this kind of stuff, and there's always at least one comment, It'll kill 'em."

Jennifer 2 1:51

Why? I eat popsicles and it don't kill me I mean, people think that it will make them go into shock. That's crazy I mean, so if, I'm gonna say if they're, um, you know, like 100 degrees and you douse them in 30 degree water, water Um, that's gonna cause a problem Okay, so you're talk- you're talking about, like, a ice water bath, or are you talking about, like, ice water to drink?

2:21

No, these people were dunking them. Oh my gosh, no. I thought you were talking about ice water to drink. I'm like, "What's wrong with that?" No, ice water to... See, that's why this one's mostly BS. Because, like, for me, I freeze gallon jug- gallon milk jugs, and I will drop them in the reservoir that feeds my auto-watering system in the morning time. Take them out at night, stick them in the deep freeze, repeat it. I mean, it keeps the water cool most of the day. Mm-hmm. It works great. But, you know, if you give them 33-degree water when it's 100 degrees, it's probably gonna throw them off a little bit I mean, they, you're talk- when they're drinking it, I can't get real excited about it. I mean, we drink ice water during the day and, I mean, it's fine. And the amount of water they- They're fine with it the amount of water they drink, you're talking about, what, five or six drops at a time they're getting in there. Maybe. I can't get real excited about it. Mm-mm. I mean, if it makes you feel good- But these people- give it to them. These, these people, I mean, there's people that will, you know, they'll, they'll go through a couple times a day. I know some game fowl guys that they'll use a 32-ounce watering cup, which is way more than enough, 'cause they're I highly doubt they drink 12 ounces even on a hot summer day. But they'll fill that up half, maybe a little more, and then they'll use the old-school ice trays to make ice cubes, and they'll go put one of those ice cubes around the middle of the day in the water to cool the water down. Great idea. A lot of work. Yeah, I don't do that. But it's a great idea. Yeah. Mine get wet water. We, we're not temperature controlled here. Um, yeah, clean. That's what's important. Yep, mostly clean. A lot of people say, "They got some shade. That's good enough." They need ventilation. Yeah. They need ventilation year-round, really. Yeah. Um, I mean, it's a mixture of things. So shade, I put shade cloths up. Mm-hmm. And of course they can go in the coop, right? But I also let my grass grow tall around the runs. Um, now I know my runs seem to cause controversy 'cause they have to be mowed. I leave grass in my runs. Um, but on the, the fence, um, of the runs, I don't weed whack that. So some of it, well, some of it's taller than I am because the vi- I think they're called maypop vines. They have the little green balls on them or something. I don't know. I don't know what they are. But anyway- The vines I just let them take over, and the vines grow across the fence and over the netting and creates natural shade. And, um, so actually this year I didn't even have to put up as much shade cloth because the vines took over so much. Um, yeah. And, and that's, that's a great idea. Yeah, so that tall grass, and then they lay up against it, and they're in the cooler dirt. Um, I mean, I, I have lost two birds so far this summer, but gosh, I mean, on those days it was 112 in heat index. So, I mean, birds were gonna die that day. I was gonna say, it could have happened either way. Yeah. And then in the coop, I, I use peat moss and stall pellets, so it's really, and it's really deep, like sand, like walking on the beach deep. Mm-hmm. And, um, so they go in there and they play and they, um, stay cool, you know, digging around in that, and dry. Dry is big time too. They need to stay dry And see that, that's actually another topic that we have. Okay. Sorry. Um, i- because people... Well, there's a lot of people that have misters. Mm-hmm. You know, like what you do with your deck or whatever. Um, is that the next one? Nope. Close, close the coop to keep the hot air out. No, that just makes an oven. That's just not how it works. That makes an oven and it keeps the ammonia in, and that's, that's just gross. Yeah. Now fans, I have lots of fans. I don't have any fans on the chickens, but in the quail barn I have the big exhaust fan. I think it's... What is that, like 30 or 36 inches up there? I mean, I'm not climbing up to measure it. Or more. Yeah, it's big. And then I have a, um, like a 42-inch floor fan- Yeah um, that blows through the, through the cages just to move air off of the birds. Cause the way a bird cools themselves is they pant and then that releases moisture, and you've got to move that air through there to get that moisture moving and that's what cools them. Right So fans they, they need that. Mm-hmm. Uh, I do have a area of my bre- certain ones of my breeding pens, there's four of them down there. They're in a very low spot. There's a lot of trees around, so they have plenty of shade, but like none of the wind gets down there. Oh. So I put a, a fan up in the top and it, it blows straight down. So if they're hot, they can go get under it. If not, they move somewhere else. Another benefit to that is when it rains, that area floods. Oh. I didn't know that when I built it, and as soon as it's not like a million degrees outside, I'm moving it, all four of them. But, so it, it helps dry the dirt out. Mm-hmm. That and about a bag of stall pellets per each time it rains. That sucks. Uh, panting's normal. Don't worry about it. That, like you said a while ago, that's not normal. So- Well, I mean, it's a normal way for them to cool themselves. Yeah. So dogs pant, you know, I mean, that's just part of it. Um- I mean, catch me outside weed eating in the middle of the day and you'll see me doing it. Right. So I mean, I don't worry about it 'cause there's nothing more I can do. You know? I've, I thin out my birds so they're not s- you know, stockpiled in there like sardines or something. Right. Um, and then I move the air best I can. Now, I will say that my barn is insulated really well, and so on the day that it was 112 heat index, um, the barn was I think just barely touching 90. So you have to play with the, the air and the buildings and know how it moves and work with the weather. So in my case, I close up the barn at, in the daytime and I open it up at night. Um, most of the day Yeah, like during the daytime, I think you roll the door up, like two or three feet maybe, just so air can come in, but it's still all shaded. Yeah, on a normal day I will, but like those days I had it closed. Yeah. The front door was closed. Now the back door stays in the shade, and so I had it up a little bit. But- That allows airflow. Mm-hmm. Um, of course the exhaust fan was still running and everything, but... And it was stuffy in there, but not as bad as it would've been had I opened everything up and let it get 100 plus in there. Um- Yeah I mean, people, we have a friend up in New York, he lost m- almost all his birds, um, because- That is crazy. So I mean, it's, it just is. You have to... Well, we have another friend in Texas that lost all her birds, or a lot of her birds. So, you know, there's a lot of, there's a lot of learning curve to it in your environment, and then sometimes you do everything you can do and, you know, it, it is what it is. The two birds that I lost on that day last week were not old birds. One was a pullet that wasn't even laying yet, and one was maybe a year old. So- And- But they were broody you know, it- Well, the older one was it does, it does point out survival of the fittest. Mm-hmm. Uh, so y- it'll help you weed out some of your weaker birds. Mm-hmm. But that's a cruel way to do your selection. So do everything you can- Without doing it on purpose. Yeah. Do everything you can to protect them. So panting is good. So a way a bird, um, lets the heat out is they, they ex- move moisture out of their body, um, because they can't sweat, and so the air has to move across them to remove that moisture from their space. So panting is a warning sign that they're hot, but is also a sign that they're handling it, if that makes sense. Mm-hmm. The wings out because they have the under fluff, they're insulated, they're just allowing airflow. Now, when you start getting into pale combs or collapsing or lethargy, I mean, you need to remember- Can't really- that a bird is not gonna show their weakness until probably it's too late. So- Yeah um, if you get to that point, it's probably too late. So just, yeah, pay attention to 'em. Um, you know, mine have, mine all but quit laying in that heat last week. Hopefully they pick up a little bit more. Well, and that's why it's so important to watch your birds. Mm-hmm. Uh, you know, keep your eyes on 'em. You know, the, that sort of thing But you ready for another, you ready for another rabbit hole? Yeah. That I wasn't expecting. All right. It's triggered a molt in my main coop. It's covered in feathers. Mine have star- some of mine have started too. Wow. I- And I'm like- It's early. It's early shouldn't, shouldn't this happen next month? Yeah, it's early. I mean, it looks like pillow fest. Like, I really was looking for a body in there, thinking that something had happened, but no. Well, that was like me two years ago when I put all my birds in a molt at the same time. Mm-hmm. 'Cause quite a few of them had gotten obese and they needed a good solid molt. And I w- I go out there and there's, like, feathers everywhere. We don't even have minks, and I was thinking a mink or a fox, both, and a raccoon, something- all went back there and all my birds were dead. No, they was just naked. Chickens do not heat stress until 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Mm-mm. Well, that's another... Like, how- Number one, I wanna know, and I almost, you would be proud of me because I almost commented How do you know that chickens don't stress till 100 degrees? Did they tell you Well, you know, I'm like the bird whisperer, so I would say, without Googling or checking something, I would say they would start getting stressed around the 80-degree mark. Uh, I know the c- I know cows are 60 degrees, believe it or not. So- The science says 85. I was so close. Because, you know, I did, I did research and it was all over, but I found a couple different universities that agreed 85. And I'm like, you know, even on a windy day, about 85 I get hot and stressed out, too. Mm-hmm. Sucks. So, yeah. And it might d- and it's gonna depend on the kind of chickens, too. I mean, we've got big fluffy chickens. If you had like normal chickens, maybe- Actually, from what I saw, it don't matter the size. Really? Big fat fluffy chickens- Which I was like- ain't gonna get hotter faster? I was like, you mean to tell me one of Jennifer's T-Rex-looking Orpingtons, it's four-foot tall. Not really, but two and a half, three for sure. Oh, yeah. And like eight pounds ain't gonna get hotter than, say, a Bantam or something like that. But they said that their, the, the research actually says that their bodies are proportionate, so it's affected the same way. Okay. So- And I'm like, okay, so a couple summers ago when I was 100 pounds heavier and it got 85, it sucked. This summer it got to 85 a heck of a lot quicker and I'm 100 pounds lighter, and it still sucked. So, okay, maybe that is right. But it definitely ain't 100 degrees. Well, you, you bring up a point though. So, um, chickens that are overweight, are they gon- I mean, that's a lot more pressure on their organs and their hearts. So are they gonna handle heat stress better or worse or the same as a regular chicken? Um, the science shows that a chicken with a fatty liver has a greater lack of success rate of surviving a very heat-stressed summer. Okay. So another strike against treats. Mm-hmm. So watch the fruit, watch the watermelon, watch the frozen stuff you're giving them to try to cool them down because then it could work against you. I don't know. I mean, you just- You're killing me. You really didn't look at this presentation. I didn't look at it. I've been so busy. Um, see, this is the one, you know, all breeds handle heat the same. BS. Breed, size, feathering, age. It's the same. Yep. Okay. Well, well I was on t- I was on it there, wasn't I? Let's see. Chickens are fine in the summer because they know what they are doing Now, okay No. I understand that they, chickens are smart to an extent. If you're feeding them a diet that's lacking methionine, they know methionines in feathers and other vitamins and minerals, so they will eat feathers. I give them an A for effort and being smart as it relates to that. However, several different ag extensions specifically mentioned broody hens. Mm-hmm. And I have seen at your place three broody hens that were probably six to seven pounds in size- Mm-hmm in these same metal nesting boxes. Mm-hmm. I've seen two head first, butt up in the air, in the same trash can. Mm-hmm. Why are y'all in the trash can? So we did do a podcast already on broody hens a few weeks ago, so you can go back and search on that one. But yes, I can testify that they definitely will overheat in- Mm-hmm a nest box, and I have myself pulled at least three dead ones out this year that have either died from, um, heat stress or being smothered in a nest box. So, you know, s- several years ago, I got... And I think I've told the story about me getting the Isa Browns and just- Mm-hmm hatching off a bunch of barnyard chicks, $5 a piece. Paid for my c- first cabinet incubator really fast. Mm-hmm. I, I thought, "Okay, I've got commercial laying chickens. Let me get them one of those metal hanging nest box for them to have plenty of room to lay their eggs in." So I think that thing has, like 12 holes in it. Yeah, it don't matter. They still just laid in, like, three or four of them. But one day, I smelt a really funny odor- on the far side. And it was hot. It was summertime, so I'm not the only one that does my chicken chores as fast as I can in the summertime, so I might miss some stuff. Yeah, I did. There was two of them in one hole And it was not a pretty sight when I got them out because they were very stiff.

Dolores 18:54

Mm-hmm. Mm. Yep. So broody hens can be pretty dumb. Yes. So yeah, definitely in this heat, if you don't need them to be broody, break them, and go back and listen to that podcast. Yeah.

Jennifer 2 19:07

I hope you are enjoying our summer series and taking time to enjoy your birds! Watch for cues because you know them best. Remember that poultry handle cool better than hot and we have to take some extra time with them in the heat. Poultry Nerds is made possible by our Supporting Partners.