2nd hen dead in 3 days to heat prostration...

[ZZsBabiez]

I'm sorry for your loss. I know it's hard to take..

I had a RIR laying on her side with her eyes rolling back in her head.. I didn't even wait to get her in water.. I soaked her with the hose..

I also use the cheap sprayer end on the mist setting..

I use these vitamin/electrolytes..
http://www.jefferslivestock.com/ssc/signin.asp?CID=2&to=1

I mix up a mash with vitamin water, crumbles, yogurt and boiled egg yolk.. she is okay today!! Not real perky.. but she is up and around.. eating and drinking.

We are out of the triple digits for now.. but I think the extra bang in the mash helped. I also iced down the big waterer and filled it with the powder...

 

[AHappychick]

so sorry Mahonri

maybe you can inject them with water under the skin? would that help to keep them hydrated. Someone mentioned frozen jugs of water for them to cool by. where you are you would have to replace it often but maybe that with a fan blowing over it would help cool them down.

Good Luck.

 

[65browneyes]

I do the frozen jugs in the hen house, as well as one in their water. We hit 115* here at noonish.

I had a rabbit who lived outside. I used to keep a frozen 2 liter bottle in her nest box during the hot summers. They acted as an A/C unit. She'd lay right against it with her head on it, too.

I swear by the frozen jugs. They do have to be replaced at least once during the day.

I also spray down the building, the run, and their shade tree during the day and again at bedtime.

 

[basicliving]

Quote:
Mahonri, I am so sorry

Kathy's page above has some great ideas.

Although not nearly as hot as where you are, we had some very warm temps a few weeks last year. I ended up putting kitty litter boxes in the run filled with pine shavings and covered in water. The chickens got in them several times during the day, and some would sit in them for quite a while. The boxes got messy quickly, so I had to change them out a couple of times each day, but they really seemed to help.

Best of luck to you. I hope you don't lose any more.

Penny

 

[chickenzoo]

So sorry you lost your hens......

I have a story on here about my frizzle made of steel. His last near death experience was from the heat. I lost three chickens in one day, I went out to bury them and found Snowball on his side, burning up hot and barely breathing. His pupils had not yet dilated. I hosed him down with slightly warm water and then worked my way up to cold as not to shock him. I made sure to run it over his comb and wattles where he has a lot of blood flow. I then took him in the house, put him on a towel and placed one drop of Poultry Nutri Drench vitamins on the base of his tongue. I filled zipp lock bags with cold water and placed them under each wing. I mixed a solution of 1/2 Nutri drench 1/2 water and drew it up in a syringe and pulled up skin along his back and injected it just under the skin. This helped since he wasn't able to drink. I massaged and dried him with a towel and then put a warm light near by so he did not get cold. He came around and is doing much better..... I hope this helps some just encase you have to do this again...hoping you don't.

 

[EweSheep]

So sorry you lost your hens! Heat is really hard on any birds and I had a few I thought would not make it.

I put light colored Gatorade or Pedialite in their drink, 50 percent water and 50 percent Gatorade. It did help my hens get thru the worse ordeal and they did have shade but the panting and the stress was getting the best of them.

Every one of them made it so far in the two weeks of heat "wave" we had. Now the weather is cooler in the 70's, yep, we love it! But it makes them slow down laying.

 

[toyzbox]

We've been having some high temps and humidity here too. I don't have any power in the coop so I've been looking for ways to keep the girls cool. I found this great little solar powered fan that DH put in the roof to pull out the hot air but that only does so much. I starting pouring water in the dirt by thier door. They would spread it out and all lay in it. But I love the idea about freezing the water jugs. I'm doing that today.
Mahonri, I'm so sorry you are having to deal with all this. I hope you can feel better knowing that you have helped so many folks here with the same problems and fears. I'm greatful you have shared this sad story and I hope your other girls do O.K.
Thank you so much.

 

[TXmom]

I'm so sorry about your girls, Mahonri. I just lost my RIR pullet too

I hope this heat wave breaks soon...we could use a good soaking rain now...or at the very least a nice cloudy overcast day.

 

[Mahonri]

Well it's only 97 at present due to cloud cover from storms to the south of us last evening. Our dew point is in the 60s but I doubt we'll get any rain out of it.

My gals have me double booked all afternoon so I called son of Mahonri (DS#4) to get out, give some more water and turn on the newly installed AC. We'll see how they have fared when I get home at 5pm.

I'm about to run over to Home Depot and buy another unit so that if this one ever goes out, I'll have a back up... amazing you can get a window AC unit for $99!

 

[pips&peeps]

Sorry you lost birdies.

I hope you will find the ameraucanas are going to be just fine.