Identifying & Treating Chicken Heat Stress

Very good article. I found my beloved hen dead in the coop the other day, she wasn't showing any signs of lethargy, loss of appetite, parasites, or egg problems or anything the day before and she was a very large chicken so I'm wondering if she passed of heat stroke of something.

Great advice. My chickens are in a large run (due to preditors)and the whole thing has a roof. I live in GA and we are in the mid 90's almost every day. I have two high velocity fans going at all times and some smaller ones too. My coop is a 5 X 6 X 5 and is one they can get under. The coop is under a car shed (so double roofed). Mine still pant in the hot part of the day. So I got one of those rolling air conditioners and put duct on it and the other end shoots cool air under the coop. Small fans help dispurse the cooler air. I have 4 girls and they sit under there in front of the cool air. I run it for a few hours during the hottest part of the day. The whole run is in the shade of the house by 2:30-3:00 PM and that helps. I give them frozen fruit, ice cold watermelon and canteloupe, and put in cold water and change it out regularly. They get mealworms every day for their morning and bedtime treats. I also spray cool water in their run. This summer has been particularly hot. So Iam making their run larger with some other options currently. In hindsight, I would have gotten a walk in coop. That way I could put the air cond. and the chickens both in their during the hottest part of the day with water and food.

Some of these are great suggestions, but panting isn't always something that you are going to be able to immediately treat or even need to. Light panting is normal and how they cool themselves. I usually step up the intervention when the panting becomes aggressive and/or is accompanied with wing raising. This is of course accompanied with all of the other strategies I am already deploying proactively such as full shade, cool drinking water, multiple fans, misters, and high water content foods such as watermelon and blueberries. But even with that and semi-normal temps, some of your birds are still going to pant. My blue australorp would pant in 75 degree weather if she could. Checking on them frequently is key to making sure that symptoms aren't abnormal. You will know your girls best through this protocol and will know when to intervene. My step intervention is always to dunk their feet in a shallow container for 10-15 seconds first before I would ever submerge them completely. Being that wet on hot days can have the opposite effect and end up increasing their heat even more as they attempt to dry off. BUT, in some situations, it is absolutely worth doing. But, then be prepared to sit with that gal/gals for quite some time for observation after.

Excellent! Great info to determine the difference and treatment.

Vague and too generalized to be of much help, IMO.
Panting comes way before wing lifting when a bird is hot.

Remember that ice cold water can be dangerous. Cool fresh clean water throughout the day is better than ice cold water.

Very helpful in hot climate’s or high temperatures in regions where this is not common. Thanks for this great article.