Arizona Chickens

Just went out to put ice bottles in the water buckets and found one of my hens had died, presumably from the heat. I thought they were all faring well with misters and wading pool.
It was one of my Bielefelders. They seemed to me to struggle more in the heat.
She had ants over her. It may seem crass but I assume it's safe to butcher and eat her?? Should she be refrigerated until the guys can do that?
I'm so sorry you lost a girl, this heat is just brutal. I would not eat it because you really don't know for sure what she passed from.
 
Just wanted to say hello! New to the community, I have 8 chickens they just turned 16 weeks today hopefully eggs will come soon, not sure with the heat though as I’m new to raising these lovely ladies, I’m in north phoenix. Sorry to hear about your loss @Happy Novogens
Welcome to BYC. It could be a couple of months yet before your crew starts laying; hopefully it’ll start to cool down by then!
 
Just wanted to say hello! New to the community, I have 8 chickens they just turned 16 weeks today hopefully eggs will come soon, not sure with the heat though as I’m new to raising these lovely ladies, I’m in north phoenix. Sorry to hear about your loss @Happy Novogens
Thank you.
This heat takes a toll on their egg laying. I had 8 laying hens (now 7) and am only averaging 1 or 2 eggs per day. Normally I'd get 6 per day.
Funny I was warned that egg laying slows down in winter, so last Fall I was hoarding our eggs. Well, egg production never slowed and I ended up with over 20 dozen eggs in my fridge!
I should've instead been hoarding before the intense heat hit, lol.
 
3 weeks old today - spending most the day light hours in a sunshade covered mini-coop in the front yard - there are 6 of them, they LOVE to fly about which makes their indoor box not the most fun place.
when they are 4 weeks, they will be moved to the backyard for supervised (& segregated) time with the adult hens. hoping by start of week 5 they can do all day in backyard in their own yard near hens. Then week 6, we'll integrate into big girl coop, with eventual overnight stays
 

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Good morning AZ. How is everyone doing? I saw that our temps in the valley are headed back up this weekend, not looking forward to that. My son had his fence blown down with the last storm that went through the west valley, but nobody was hurt thankfully. Hope everyone is safe and your animals are doing well.
 
The winds have been crazy this summer, haven't they? All kinds of fences are down around here, too: wood and chain link and some concrete block ones (how does that even happen)? I'm glad no one was hurt, igorsMistress.

We're all doing okay. Very busy, still reeling a bit from the storm damage. The flock is confined to a small pen right now as I've been waiting for my next paycheck to buy more materials. I got it today so we'll start rebuilding again this week.

In all this heat and less-than-ideal conditions, we got our very first egg on 7/29. :celebrate🥳🎉 We had thought she was a cockerel and an Easter egger but it turns out she's a hen and has been laying beautiful olive eggs! That was a welcome surprise. One of our white leghorns has also started laying.
 

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The winds have been crazy this summer, haven't they? All kinds of fences are down around here, too: wood and chain link and some concrete block ones (how does that even happen)? I'm glad no one was hurt, igorsMistress.

We're all doing okay. Very busy, still reeling a bit from the storm damage. The flock is confined to a small pen right now as I've been waiting for my next paycheck to buy more materials. I got it today so we'll start rebuilding again this week.

In all this heat and less-than-ideal conditions, we got our very first egg on 7/29. :celebrate🥳🎉 We had thought she was a cockerel and an Easter egger but it turns out she's a hen and has been laying beautiful olive eggs! That was a welcome surprise. One of our white leghorns has also started laying.
I’m so sorry you’re still dealing with the mess, I hope the fix goes quickly for you. Congratulations on your first egg, I love that color. Hopefully you’ll have a colorful egg basket soon, the rest probably won’t be far behind.
 
The winds have been crazy this summer, haven't they? All kinds of fences are down around here, too: wood and chain link and some concrete block ones (how does that even happen)? I'm glad no one was hurt, igorsMistress.

We're all doing okay. Very busy, still reeling a bit from the storm damage. The flock is confined to a small pen right now as I've been waiting for my next paycheck to buy more materials. I got it today so we'll start rebuilding again this week.

In all this heat and less-than-ideal conditions, we got our very first egg on 7/29. :celebrate🥳🎉 We had thought she was a cockerel and an Easter egger but it turns out she's a hen and has been laying beautiful olive eggs! That was a welcome surprise. One of our white leghorns has also started laying.
How old are your chicks? I’m awaiting my first eggs from my ladies but their 17 weeks and I think the heat is holding them off, soooo ready for September and October and cooler temps 🥶
 

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