Is the most common time of heat stroke death at night when they are inside the coop? My flock free ranges and only goes in the coop to sleep. My coop has 4 windows and lots of eaves ventilation, but from what I've been seeing from my other chicken friends is finding dead birds in broad daylight.
I'm going to hope that you all are right and my birds are going to be okay. I'm going to hope that all these people posting on facebook and other forums finding their birds dying of heat stroke are exaggerating. I'm going to hope that global climate change isn't affecting my area at all and that this is all just normal stuff, in the face of all evidence to the contrary. I'm going to cross my fingers for the next 10 years and hope that I do everything right for them. The more I grow to love them for how wonderful and special they are, the stronger my anxiety over their welfare. I can't seem to stop myself from growing attached.
My birds are picky and I can't get them to eat anything that isn't mealworms, grubs or fried eggs. I tried frozen treats and they won't try them or if they do they violently shake their heads and leave the treats. Frozen peas, watermelon, honeydew, blueberries, I don't think they like the cold in their mouth. My older birds are handling the weather much better than my babies who are too stupid to not stand in the sun. They have a tendency to haunt my back step, because I go out that door; my step is aluminum so I am throwing ice cubes down on it. It seems to be helping them. The ice cools the metal they're standing on and they peck at the cold dripping water. I have four watering stations where they range and one of them is a great big huge open bowl so they can walk into it if they like to and some of them do, I change the big bowl every hour with fresh cold water.
There's so much behind social media posts we don't see.
- Severe weather can be a tipping point for undetected illness.
- Setups may unknowingly cause stress or not allow for bullied birds to access enough water or shade.
- Issues can be exacerbated by the fact that chickens eat less in heat. If they're bullied or on lower-quality feed to start with, they can end up malnourished and less able to fight health problems.
- For those of us on wells, water quality can go down when the water table shifts with extreme heat. In our area, iron bacteria is a problem. We've had to troubleshoot our filtration system to keep up this summer. Our water-quality guy says it's happening all over the region. Sudden chicken death wouldn't be out of the question with some water issues.
- Different plants might be popping up that are toxic to chickens but still look delicious to them, especially if safe green things aren't available.
So it may not be that posts are exaggerating but that dying chickens were weakened by health issues, social problems not seen by the keeper, or surprise summer toxins.
Chickens in good health and housing really are good at adjusting in harsh weather. That said, we're planning "take the edge off" climate control in our next setup, particularly flat-panel heaters. Over the past couple years, we've seen how weather can stress them and would like to mitigate that.
To
@3KillerBs' point, many coops are flammable and rickety, not at all suitable for upfitting with electric. And since chickens can't pick up the cell phone when the power goes out, it's truly critical to design housing as though there's no climate control. Also, be observant and ready to troubleshoot. During bad weather, watch that birds are eating, drinking, pooping, and socializing normally.
Ours take this severe, close, blistering heat in stride, but they have a big, shaded yard and aren't under predator stress, so they can dustbathe and nap as needed. I still take extra measures, like...
- Putting out extra waterers.
- Pouring water on a patch of dirt. This area in their yard would normally be damp, if the heat hadn't burned it dry. The chickens like to start with dry dust baths in full sun, then toddle down to the shaded, damp dirt for cool dirt baths. Chicken spa.
- Setting out shallow pans of water for foot baths. Only a couple birds actually use them, but they're a fun curiosity for others.
Some like to peck at cold fruit, and a few like ice in their waterers, but like you said, a lot of birds aren't into cold stuff. There's a theory that cold food makes metabolism run higher, which ultimately creates more body heat, but I can't cite a reference or back this in any way. Just that if you give cold water, provide room-temperature water, too.
We've had a surprise issue thanks to tree-fall this winter: for the first time, one of the coops is in afternoon sun. It heats up like an oven. I never worried about the coop's color or ventilation before, but now the sun's outpacing it.
I've blocked the sun with a light sheet and charged up camping fans to pull in air during the 2nd half of the day. The fans are quiet and small enough not to stir up dust (which could cause respiratory problems). Doesn't look like much, but my quick, freak-out measures absolutely worked to bring temps down a few degrees, resulting in less stress on the late-afternoon layers who like the nesting boxes in this coop, and on all the birds who choose to roost in here overnight.
Stay cool, and good luck to you and your biddies!
