Why is it always the rule that if one of your chickens is going to get hurt of sick it's always your favorites?
This time it was our favorite light brahma hen, the one that we call 'the friendly fatty.'
I have had 3 or 4 of my hens trying to play the broody game with limited success. One managed to hatch a single healthy chick, but I think it only survived because I found it after it had pipped and zipped and got it out of the egg before it suffocated or baked in the heat. She had 3 others that got that far and then died because it is so darned hot in the coop. She finally gave up on the rest of her eggs, but there are 3 more that are still spending the whole day in the sweltering coop trying to hatch eggs.
Only one of them has the sense to pick ONE nest and stay there. The other two (including the brahma)keep migrating around all over the place, so I put their eggs under the other one and have been trying to break them from the broody cycle by taking away any eggs I catch them with and tossing them out of the nest boxes every time I catch them there.
Well, it hasn't worked, and yesterday the fatty managed to give herself heat stroke because she sat in the heat of the coop when it was 104 outside. I had a fan pointed at the nest boxes to try to cool them off, but the other chickens knocked it over and it shut off. Of course the broody didn't have the sense to leave or go get water all day so when I went to collect eggs in the evening I found the poor thing all wonked out and unable to even stand up.
I grabbed her up right away and ran her to the ducks' pool and dunked her in to start cooling her off (the water was cool, but not too cold). Then I got some ice and wrapped it in a towel for her to lay on while I used a syringe to give her water mixed with electrolytes. She was really addled and wobbly and kept acting like she was hallucinating or maybe she was just really dizzy. I put her in my bathroom overnight and she seems to be coming out of it, thank goodness!
I swear this heat is making all of us miserable this year! Everybody free-ranges all day so they have plenty of shade to hide in, plus I help out by having tons of fresh water available and I give them lots of frozen treats to keep them cool, BUT the coop is an oven!
It is even miserable in there AT NIGHT, and the poor chickens and ducks all sit there and pant with their wings out. The big project for this weekend is to install a big turbine fan on the roof of the coop (it's a 12 by 20 storage barn) to hopefully draw out the hot air that builds up in there all day. Eventually I plan to insulate the whole thing and I may just end up putting in a, AC unit if the fan and insulation aren't enough.
This time it was our favorite light brahma hen, the one that we call 'the friendly fatty.'
I have had 3 or 4 of my hens trying to play the broody game with limited success. One managed to hatch a single healthy chick, but I think it only survived because I found it after it had pipped and zipped and got it out of the egg before it suffocated or baked in the heat. She had 3 others that got that far and then died because it is so darned hot in the coop. She finally gave up on the rest of her eggs, but there are 3 more that are still spending the whole day in the sweltering coop trying to hatch eggs.
Only one of them has the sense to pick ONE nest and stay there. The other two (including the brahma)keep migrating around all over the place, so I put their eggs under the other one and have been trying to break them from the broody cycle by taking away any eggs I catch them with and tossing them out of the nest boxes every time I catch them there.
Well, it hasn't worked, and yesterday the fatty managed to give herself heat stroke because she sat in the heat of the coop when it was 104 outside. I had a fan pointed at the nest boxes to try to cool them off, but the other chickens knocked it over and it shut off. Of course the broody didn't have the sense to leave or go get water all day so when I went to collect eggs in the evening I found the poor thing all wonked out and unable to even stand up.
I grabbed her up right away and ran her to the ducks' pool and dunked her in to start cooling her off (the water was cool, but not too cold). Then I got some ice and wrapped it in a towel for her to lay on while I used a syringe to give her water mixed with electrolytes. She was really addled and wobbly and kept acting like she was hallucinating or maybe she was just really dizzy. I put her in my bathroom overnight and she seems to be coming out of it, thank goodness!
I swear this heat is making all of us miserable this year! Everybody free-ranges all day so they have plenty of shade to hide in, plus I help out by having tons of fresh water available and I give them lots of frozen treats to keep them cool, BUT the coop is an oven!
It is even miserable in there AT NIGHT, and the poor chickens and ducks all sit there and pant with their wings out. The big project for this weekend is to install a big turbine fan on the roof of the coop (it's a 12 by 20 storage barn) to hopefully draw out the hot air that builds up in there all day. Eventually I plan to insulate the whole thing and I may just end up putting in a, AC unit if the fan and insulation aren't enough.