The Relation of High Environmental Temperature to Feather and Skin Temperatures of Laying Pullets

Abstract

THE high insulating value of chicken feathers is well known. The effect of feathers as a deterrent to heat loss from the chicken’s body in warm weather has not been thoroughly investigated. Feathers which form a loose covering over the body are apparently not adapted to radiation of body heat but instead help to impede its loss. The purpose of this study of the skin and feather temperature was to shed light on the manner in which heat is lost from the chicken’s body. Such a study may suggest practical methods of alleviating some of the effects of high summer temperatures. MATERIALS AND METHODS The laying pullets used in these tests were S. C. White Leghorn and New Hampshire pullets approximately 8 months old. They were kept in a triple deck hen battery housed in a shed roof house. The birds were allowed access to food and water throughout the . . .