California Wildfire air quality

[orloffer]

Here in Alameda county it is nearly dark outside. There is ash covering everything. the best I could do was shut mine in their respective coops and hope the outside quail make it. If you can shut them in their inside area you should.

Yes, it looks like it is still early morning here, even though it is eleven o'clock. I am in Mountain View, which is not in immediate danger of the fires, but this (judging by how it looks outside) is the worst it has been so far.

 

[achiekitty]

I decided to keep the chickens in the run, and they would occasionally let us know they want out. It’s more protected than free ranging in the backyard. The air is not as smoky as in past smoky days, and cooler too. But the sky is still orange and soot on every outdoor surface.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

What I meant to say..

I'm sorry.. this is a very scary time for many.. and it's challenging to know what the right thing to do is sometimes. It's also dark and weird here, raining ash.. and much cooler than the heat wave of the past several days, though nowhere on par with most places. Hope their is some reprieve for the fire fighters, the families, the wildlife, the forest, and our flocks!

At 6 weeks old your birds will adapt to whatever you think is best! My previous thought on it maybe being more stressful was if they were actually laying already, I must have missed their age.

I don't have air conditioning here.. and internal air is equivalent to outside.. Shutting the windows might not help for ME. Please use your best judgement, according to your personal circumstance!

Maybe you can get more tips, and quote taken from another link..
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/smoke-and-chickens.1409925/#post-23144726

"MROO said:
Put lightweight curtains over the hardware cloth/chicken wire/screens and keep them damp. That filters out a lot of the ash. You'll need to totally rinse them out frequently, though, as the ash will clog the fires, trapping air and ammonia inside. You can do it while they are still in place, as long as the water doesn't run into the coop. The same trick works for your house windows - damp sheets hung over your screens and cleaned frequently. Both are lessons taken from friends who went through the Camp Fire a while back.
Good Luck ... and stay safe!"

One of the tips I remember from growing up in California.. was to limit activity on bad air days.. which also limits respiration essentially.

Breath easy dear chickens and chicken friends!

 

[Mtnchickenmom]

Yes, it looks like it is still early morning here, even though it is eleven o'clock. I am in Mountain View, which is not in immediate danger of the fires, but this (judging by how it looks outside) is the worst it has been so far.

Yes! I’m in LG and I was shocked this morning the car windows were covered in ash!

 

[achiekitty]

The sky was better today, but the air quality index is still above 100, went up to almost 200 towards the evening. My husband said, our oldest chicken, 6 yr old Goldie, sounded like a dog barking this morning. He thought she was coughing. As far as I could tell, she didn’t make anymore of that sound and she seemed her usual self the rest of the day. They were back to free ranging today. I applied Vet-RX on each of them and made sure their water stations didn’t have any ashes on them.

 

[MarkJr]

We’ve been over 650 for the last few days. Come on rain!!!!

 

[achiekitty]

We’ve been over 650 for the last few days. Come on rain!!!!

Oh, my! I didn’t know it goes that high. I’ve only been recently tracking. Yes, we all need rain on the West Coast. If only we could get some of the rain back East, just some, not all..

 

[roheryn]

We lost one of our favorite hens on that dark day (wednesday). We found her against the fence, her neck broken. It seems she was either running or trying to fly over the fence, and couldn't see it. It was an awful day for so many reasons. I am trying to decide if we leave the girls outside or bring them into the garage. Not a lot better, but not breathing ash...

 

[achiekitty]

We lost one of our favorite hens on that dark day (wednesday). We found her against the fence, her neck broken. It seems she was either running or trying to fly over the fence, and couldn't see it. It was an awful day for so many reasons. I am trying to decide if we leave the girls outside or bring them into the garage. Not a lot better, but not breathing ash...

So sorry.

 

[TheGreyCoop]

We lost one of our favorite hens on that dark day (wednesday). We found her against the fence, her neck broken. It seems she was either running or trying to fly over the fence, and couldn't see it. It was an awful day for so many reasons. I am trying to decide if we leave the girls outside or bring them into the garage. Not a lot better, but not breathing ash...

I’m sorry for loss