100 degrees and hen still has chicks under her wings

[NewToChix]

Is this safe? I feel like she will do what is best, but she has smothered chicks before and raised some until old age so I am torn. It is going to be 100+ degrees here for at least another week and I am worried about these babies. They can only be a day or two old since I didn't notice them yesterday. They have cold water, food, and some frozen veggies to peck at but in this heat I don't know how they'll survive sitting under mama hen.

 

[GitaBooks]

I've heard chicks can't easily survive over 100 degrees, but there are somethings you can do to help them:
Provide a fan
Put some cool dirt in with them for them to dust bathe in and cool off in
Keep them completely shaded under dense cover with good air-flow
Keep the nesting material light for good aeration (hay/straw)
Keep up the cold veggies and water
Dunk their feet and legs in cool (not cold) water if they seem to be too hot

Chicks will come partially out from under their mother when hot, or even all the way out, but if it is equally as hot out from under her, this may not help them.

Best of luck with your chicks. I hope they do well!

 

[DrTacosMD]

Freeze some bottles of water and get ready to give them to the chicks (unopened). It got to 100+ a few times in the past 2 weeks and we had some die offs. They'll sit near or on the frozen bottles to cool down.

Give them feed mixed with water. If it's a hot day, you can put enough water that the feed becomes pasty.

 

[centrarchid]

The can handle warmer so long as out of sun and have access to water, Hen can raise wings so air flows over chicks dissipating heat. Mine survived ambient air temperature of 113 F in free-range setting. During heat of day hens with chicks sought out shaded locations and scratched pits into cool soil. Feeding really shut down between 10 AM and 5 PM.


You can wet a shaded location where evaporative cooling can lower termp by several degrees.

 

[NewToChix]

Thank you for the replies. So I have given them cool water twice a day and I wet the roof of the coop to try and cool it down. I am also wetting the ground area all over the run for the rest of the chickens and ducks. The chicks seem to be doing really well today, except for one. It is a little weak, but he may have just hatched earlier. She has had two hatch today and one is hatching right now! 7 babies so far which is her highest number yet. She usually leaves the eggs after 2 or 3 have hatched leaving the rest like a bad mama.

Oh, I picked up some grapes and froze them and threw some in there just a bit ago. It is supposed to cool down to 96 on Sunday so looking forward to that! I am going to get a nice bag of dirt to throw in the coop with them so they can play, scratch and cool off with it. Great ideas!

Thanks everyone!!!