Your chickens are &*$#! Hot!

Transcript

Welcome To Chicken Every Day

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Are we ready, Papa? Hello friends, and welcome to Chicken Every Day, a podcast for you, the Backyard Chicken Enthusiast and mine. Your host is my Papa Gary, Gary Valerie of Sin Law Backyard Chickens. Here we have fun while sharing ideas and learning how to care for our foul-feathered friends. Check out our videos at Sinlaw. That's C-E-N-L-A. Backyard Chickens on YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook. So without further ado, let's start today's show. How was that?

SPEAKER_01 0:30

That was great.

August Heat And Cooling Goals

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Hey guys, Gary with Sinlaw Backyard Chickens here with you again, and it is August. Traditionally the hottest month, or at least one of the hottest months of the year, and if you're in the northern hemisphere like I am here in central Louisiana, it's friggin' hot. So we're going to talk a little bit today about how to keep our chickens cool. And there's all kinds of ways that you know, little tips and tricks that we can use to do that. And it kind of depends on what your setup is. If you keep your birds in a run or if you keep your birds in a coop, then you're going to make sure that your coop is is at least shaded and it's going to have some sort of a fan in there. I have two runs that my birds can go in and out of, but they also go out in pasture every day as well. You can't see it, but right here, well maybe you can. I have a box fan. A lot of the days I run a box fan if there's no breeze going outside. But it's very important to have that good air circulation for them. You go outside, you know, I've got a couple of big shade trees out here that they can get under. There's little places that they can go to cool off. I can see a bird right now over there sitting in the shade. These over here, always

Frozen Treats For Hydration

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curious and noisy to see what's going on. But shade is a very important thing. At nighttime, I'm lucky enough that uh I have electricity out here and with a Wi-Fi extender, I've got a couple of fans. I got one pretty big fan, like that, uh, that blows into my coop, and I've got another smaller fan that pulls air out of the coop. And in the summertime, I blow air into it, the wintertime I pull air out. I don't want to be pushing air into the coop in the wintertime whenever it's really cold. But I want to help keeping what I'm doing in the winter is helping to keep ammonia down. They spend more time inside that coop in the winter than they do the summer. But but I I digress. But back to what I'm talking about. And there's another tricks that you can use to help keep your birds cool. And it's kind of fun. Uh I will take grapes and and blackberries or blueberries, cut them up in little bitty dicey pieces, put them in a regular old-fashioned ice tray, add some water to it, freeze that, and then serve that to them during the day. It's a cool, refreshing treat that they really like. It's a good way to keep them hydrated as well. You can also give them watermelon. Uh, we do we do that all the time. Here in Louisiana, midsummer is watermelon season for us, so we're always eating some good watermelons and cantaloupes. And so we give them that whenever we're finished with it. They enjoy that. Again, a great way for hydration for

DIY Electrolytes For Chickens

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them. You can also do your own chicken gaiterade, for lack of a better, uh better way to put it. And this is a great recipe for getting things in their body, the nutrients and the vitamins and the minerals that they need. And it's very easy to do. Let's see if I can remember it off the top of the top of my head. Per gallon of water, you would grate one teaspoon of fresh ginger, one half teaspoon of non-iodized salt. We don't want to put iodine in their diet, but one teaspoon of non-iodized salt. Uh, let's see. If you want to add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, you can, but in the middle of the summer, it's really not quite as important as it usually is. But I'll also put a couple tablespoons of molasses in there. Gives them that sweet, sugary flavor, makes them really want to drink this stuff up. They really enjoy doing that, trust me. And it makes a good, good balance for them. Uh, you can look at one of my videos. I have all the ingredients and you see me make in this farm. I just kind of call it chicken grape Gatorade. It's really good stuff for them. In other words, we want to keep those electrolytes in them, and that's what you're doing, is you're giving your birds electrolytes. And what you make is gonna be much better than the little pack of powder that you spend three or four bucks for at the farm store. But again, think about what your birds need. You know, we want to keep air moving around them. So, in here, if they're gonna hang out in the coop or they're gonna hang out in the run, I'm gonna have my fan blowing for them in the summer. Outside, I make sure that they got shade going and that my birds do have shade. Even here in Louisiana in the middle of the day, it doesn't matter if you got shade or not, it's friggin' hot. So we want to do what we can. Fresh water always, always, always make sure. Really? I'm trying to talk here. Always make sure your birds have good, fresh water. It's just very important.

Air Water Feed Health Priorities

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And if you know what the hierarchy of health is for chickens, number one in the hierarchy of health, and there's three of these, is going to be good, fresh, clean air. Number two, good, fresh, clean water. Number three, good quality feed. And that's the order that we want those things to happen. Air quality is so important, and so many of us look over that with our with our birds. If you can smell ammonia in your coop, it's already past the level that it can start doing something detrimental to your chickens and your ground. So you don't want to smell ammonia in your coop. And every now and then we're all going to get there. I know you're going to go on vacation, there's going to be crappy weather for a week or so, and you're not going to be able to get out and coop and do what you can't. And that's okay. But for the most part, you want to make sure you keep that out. And if you don't know, you can get some sporgum or smagnum or however they pronounce that, peat moss, break all that stuff up, throw it in your coofer on top of your bedding, and that's a real good substance that helps absorb that ammonia smell. It doesn't uh it doesn't replace the smell, it actually absorbs the smell for it. So it's good for your chicken. So anyway, think of the things that you can do that's good for your birds.

Misters Kitty Pools And Shade

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I've ran a mister. I used to have an apple tree, which do not grow very well in Louisiana, right next to the coop. And I ran a mister all through that apple tree, and I would turn it on. The birds hung out in it some, but I really honestly don't think they ever figured out what it was. I've also done kitty pools that I would put under the shade tree and put a few inches of water in it. They didn't want to hang out in there. I would pick a chicken up and set them down in it, and a couple of them kind of got the idea that, oh well, this isn't bad, and they would just drink a few times and they would get out. It's really hard to get a chicken to hang out in a kitty pool. But if you do and you can, then good, yeah. That that that you know, their feet is one of the ways that they cool off, and that water on their feet because there's no feathers can can help put it down as well. But think about the things that you can do for you. Where are you? Yeah. You see her? Yeah, she wants to go in there and lay an egg, and I'm probably you know busting up her a good time. But think about the things that you can do that are not expensive to help keep your birds hydrated, to help keep them cool, to help keep them shaded. You'll be happier, they'll be happier. Thank you so much, guys. See you soon.

Email The Show And Wrap

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Oh, by the way, before I go, remember you can find me at chickens everyday at yahoo.com. That's chickens everyday at yahoo.com. Send me an email. If you want to chat, maybe get on the show or tell me about uh what you want to hear on the show, just just send me an email. We'll chat. Thank you so much. Bye.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

That's all we have time for today. I really hope you enjoyed listening to the podcast. Be sure to watch our videos. So, on behalf of my couple Gary and me, Sylvie, thanks for listening.