It's been a very hot summer in southern Manitoba. And, while humans can find ways to beat the heat, some animals, such as chickens are at the mercy of farmers to keep them cool.

Jake Wiebe owns Newest Poultry Farms at New Bothwell. He is also Chair of Manitoba Chicken Producers. Wiebe says chickens are more susceptible to heat than other animals because they do not sweat like humans. That means it is difficult for them to cool down, especially on humid days.

Wiebe says they use air chill or airspeed to cool the birds. He notes the industry has seen some upgrades in recent years to address heat issues with chickens. At Newest Poultry Farms they push a lot of air in summer, roughly 10 to 12 cubic feet per minute per bird.

"So that helps to cool the birds down as well as putting in lifting systems," explains Wiebe.

According to Wiebe, early warning signs that a chicken is suffering heat stress is it will sit down and begin to pant. If it stays hot for too long it will stop eating. Though heat stress can kill birds, there are other effects which are not necessarily fatal. Wiebe says for broilers, they can stop putting on their normal weight and for layers, egg production can go down. However, Wiebe says they can recover and return back to normal laying production.

Wiebe says some producers have experienced losses in their flock this summer due to heat stress. But again, he says producers are better equipped to handle the heat and as technology becomes available they have upgraded their barns. According to Wiebe, the loss of a few hundred birds in a barn could still be considered minor.

Wiebe says on really hot days they will closely monitor their barns. That means making sure fans are running and that their misting systems are cooling the air as it moves across the barn.

"We've had no issues this summer at all regarding the heat," he explains.

Being a chicken producer in Manitoba, Wiebe says barns need to be built with all extremes in mind. For every day of 30 degrees above zero in summer, you might have just as many days of -30 in winter. He notes the summer heat is more stressful on a producer than the winter freeze.

"The part that's easier in winter, of course, is the fact that we close the doors and just turn up the heat," he says. "Summertime, the fans are on and the outside temperature is a bigger factor because you are pulling it through the barn."

Meanwhile, Wiebe says one of the advantages of the heat is that young chicks thrive in these conditions as producers don't have to add too much heat.