Chickens and Geese in Hazardous Air Quality

[HorsesRMe123]

Hello!

I have 4 chickens and 2 geese. I live in Washington and the air quality where I’m at is hazardous (450/500 on the air quality index). I don’t want to see them become unhealthy because of all this. The latest weather report said that it will be until mid-day Monday that this would begin to clear up. What do you think I should do? Leave them outside or setup an area in my garage for them?

 

[Kiki]

Is the garage air any different than the air outside?

 

[HorsesRMe123]

Is the garage air any different than the air outside?

Yes, it’s better in the garage. But it’s not as good as what it is in the house.

 

[Texas Transplant]

Definitely move them indoors if you can. Here's a post I started (it also has a few links in the feed). I'm in Central Oregon, our AQI is 647

 

[HorsesRMe123]

Definitely move them indoors if you can. Here's a post I started (it also has a few links in the feed). I'm in Central Oregon, our AQI is 647

Ok thank you! I’m going to be moving them in. Oh my goodness!! I can’t believe the air quality is that bad over there. I hope it clears up very soon for you, that’s probably the worst air quality I’ve heard of yet

 

[HorsesRMe123]

Brought them all into the garage. I think they’re a little stressed but they’re getting acclimated to it.

Both my geese are very attached to each other and honk very loudly when they are without each other. Let me tell you, carrying two geese at once to the garage was no easy task

 

[Karen K]

I live just outside of Oregon City, OR. Our air quality has been so bad 3 days in a row it didn't even register on the scale. I have an outbuilding that our spa is in. The spa is covered and we plugged in a couple of hepa filters and put our 3 Brahma chickens in there. Our 2 Blue Australorps we brought in the house and put the 'chick' pen back up to keep them in. Sometimes we allow them out on the covered sofa. For the first 3 days they were lethargic and had watery poop. Same for the Brahmas. Now, though, they are doing much better. They had been out in the smokey yard until the air quality hit unhealthy. It took them several days to recover their appetites and get normal poop droppings. Now that they are mostly recovered tho they are wanting to wander around the house, so I have to keep them penned more. Hopefully, the air will clear enough I can let them back out in the yard, but the rain we keep hoping for keeps shifting or getting delayed.

I'm wondering if anyone knows if the ash particulate that is on the ground could be dangerous to them.

 

[HorsesRMe123]

I live just outside of Oregon City, OR. Our air quality has been so bad 3 days in a row it didn't even register on the scale. I have an outbuilding that our spa is in. The spa is covered and we plugged in a couple of hepa filters and put our 3 Brahma chickens in there. Our 2 Blue Australorps we brought in the house and put the 'chick' pen back up to keep them in. Sometimes we allow them out on the covered sofa. For the first 3 days they were lethargic and had watery poop. Same for the Brahmas. Now, though, they are doing much better. They had been out in the smokey yard until the air quality hit unhealthy. It took them several days to recover their appetites and get normal poop droppings. Now that they are mostly recovered tho they are wanting to wander around the house, so I have to keep them penned more. Hopefully, the air will clear enough I can let them back out in the yard, but the rain we keep hoping for keeps shifting or getting delayed.

I'm wondering if anyone knows if the ash particulate that is on the ground could be dangerous to them.

If you do decide to let them out, just make sure they have fresh clean water! I put all my birds back outside even though it’s unhealthy still because they all seemed depressed. I felt bad for them so I put them all outside and they’re doing just fine. The one thing you need to make sure of is that they have plenty of fresh clean water!

 

[Karen K]

If you do decide to let them out, just make sure they have fresh clean water! I put all my birds back outside even though it’s unhealthy still because they all seemed depressed. I felt bad for them so I put them all outside and they’re doing just fine. The one thing you need to make sure of is that they have plenty of fresh clean water!

I was going to let them out because the AQI was supposed to go to moderate today, but it's back to hazardous, so they're still inside. Even our cats don't want to go out for more than a 1/2 hour. Hoping they'll be able to go out tomorrow. Clean water is a given!