With temperatures over 34 °C and 60 % humidity in the past week, it's Japanese summer at its best.
Our chickens are torn between the feeling of being happy about the sun and being too hot because of that sun.
Chickens don't like hot weather, and it's not just some subjective feeling. There are at least four reasons why chickens are disadvantaged when it comes to really hot weather.
1. Chickens have high body temperature - about 40-41 degrees. They maintain their body temperature by losing heat into the air around them. But when the air around them is already hot, how can they lose their own body heat into it?
2. Chickens don't sweat. They don't have sweat glands to help them regulate the body temperature.
3. Chickens have a thick feather coat that makes for great insulation in winter, but inhibits heat loss in summer. It's like people wearing a thick coat on a hot day. It must feel terrible.
4. Chickens usually don't have access to air conditioning.
In other words, chickens cope with heat worse than people.
But they have a cool cooling strategy!
The first point of their cooling strategy is quite obvious: hide in the shade.
Here you can see our chickens hiding. Not a single one is outside on the sun:
Once in the shade, they lie down on the ground and take a nap. Sometimes they spread wings and do some magic that makes them feel cooler.
Second point of their cooling strategy is again similar to humans: drinking a lot of water.
Third point is panting. Chickens open their beaks and pant.
Panting, or "gular fluttering", is a cooling mechanism of many birds. If I understand it well, birds rapidly flap membranes in their throat. This vibration makes water in the throat evaporate. Evaporation helps dissipate the heat and reduce body temperature. In other words, it's birds' way of sweating?
Here are our chickens performing their cooling strategy: hiding in the shade, drinking water and panting:
The best time chickens have these days are early mornings and late evenings, when it's sunny but not hot yet. That's when their new perch gets busy:
Overall, our chickens are coping with the heat with exemplary stoicism. Who taught them that?
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