If you are thinking of starting chicken keeping, or you are already doing it, whether its boiler or native chickens. During summer season, management will play a very important role in poultry farming, let’s know in details about how to keep chickens healthy in summer.
Summer Management in Poultry
During the summer days management is paly important role, because if your management is not proper then there may be high mortality in your chickens or the overall production can get effected. The main reason behind all these problems is there are many diseases that can occur in chickens during summer months.
Common Chicken Diseases During Summer Season:
- Fowl Pox: This viral disease spread by mosquitos can cause wart-like lesions on the head, comb, and wattles of the chickens body.
- Common Diarrhea: This is another and most common problem that can occur during the extreme hot weathers.
- Infectious Bronchitis (IB): This highly contagious respiratory disease can cause coughing, wheezing, and poor egg production.
- Coccidiosis: This is also a very common problem that caused by bacteria, common symptoms like; watery and bloody diarrhea in chickens.
- Heat Stroke: Technically this is not a diseases, but heat stroke is one of the most common problem that occur in chickens, and heat stroke cause high mortality in poultry birds during summer days.
How to Keep Chickens Healthy in Summer?
Here are the 5 things that will help you to understand that how to keep chickens healthy in summer and also help you to keep your chickens healthy and productive during these months.
I) Provide Electrolyte:
During the time of extreme heat, you have to try to mix electrolyte or Electoral powder in the chickens drinking water. It is important to feed, because due to excessive heat can cause dehydration or lack of water in the chicken’s body. Along with that, electrolyte imbalance also can occur in the chicken’s body.
All these problems can cause low energy in chickens body at this time. If you provide electrolyte in chickens drinking water, then the sodium, potassium, and chloride present in it will help in charging the chickens body and help to provide energy to them.
Apart from this, the use of Electoral powder will increase the water thirst in chickens, due to which the chickens will starts drinking more water, and if your chickens start drinking more water during the summer, it will help in controlling their body temperature.
II) Manage Proper Ventilation:
it is very important to have proper ventilation inside the farm during summer because due to excessive sunlight and heat outside, the temperature inside the farm also increases due to which there can be risk of heat stroke in the chicken.
So to maintain the temperature, the best thing is to open the ventilation area inside the farm properly, so that the air can pass through, along with that, if possible than use a fan inside the farm, or an exhaust fan.
Apart from all this, if you want that the temperature inside your shed does not increase, then cover upper portion of the shed with straw or with others thing, and sprinkle water on it. This will help in maintaining the temperature inside the shed.
III) Avoid Over Crowding:
Try to keep less chickens inside the farm during summer, because keeping too many chickens together during summer, the chickens will have difficulty in living, because if more chickens are kept together then the temperature at that place will increase due to which the chickens will have difficulty in breathing or there will be a risk of stroke or heat stress in chickens.
So, if you keep 100 chickens on your farm during cold days, then try to keep less chickens at the same place during summer days.
IV) Feeding at Right Time:
During extreme heat, try not to feed the chickens from 10 or 11:00am in the morning till the 3:00 or 4:00pm in the evening , because the temperature remains very high at that time. During the extreme heat, if you give grains for eating to your chickens, then chickens will loss their energy in digesting the food, and also will increase temperature of their body.
If the temperature in the chickens body increase, then there will be a risk of heat stroke in the chickens. But now a question can come to your mind that what to feed the chickens at this time, so try to feed natural foods that will be easy in digesting by chickens and also have present high amount of water on that food.
V) Provide fresh and cold water:
Its very important to provide fresh water or changing the water time to time. Because due to extreme heat, if you don’t change their drinking water timely that water will also becomes hot after some time, and if your chickens are drinks hot water then it will not be good for their health.
So, you have to change the water in every 2 hours, or if possible, add some ice, or cold water in the chicken drinkers, and also you can mix electrolyte or electoral powder in their drinking water.
What is The Best Food for Chickens in Summer?
But now a question can come to your mind that what to feed the chickens at this time, so try to feed something that will be easy in digesting by chickens and also have present high amount of water on that food, such as;
- Leafy Greens & Vegetables: Provide chopped lettuce, kale, cucumbers, or zucchini for hydration and extra vitamins.
- Fruits (Limited): Watermelon, cantaloupe, or berries offered in moderation can be a refreshing treat.
- Frozen Treats: Freeze chopped fruits, vegetables, in ice cubes or cold water for regulating body temperature. Curd and yogurt also can be add for better gut health.
- Multivitamins: Feeding multivitamins to chickens during summer will improve the overall health, control stress, growth and egg production in chickens.
Conclusion
So friends, these are the five important things about How to keep chickens healthy in summer, which you have to keep in mind while you are doing chicken farming during summer months. These all things will help to keep your chickens away from diseases and also help to keeping your chickens healthy and even productive during these months.
