Chickens and wildfire smoke

[bittyflock]

I live in the Bay Area where wildfires are raging all around me. I’m quite worried about my hens in the very poor smoky air. I don’t really have a great way to bring them indoors and am wondering what people may know about how lethal this may be for them. We found a quite bloody egg today and I’m not sure if it predates the fire or not as we have eggs from a week ago that we haven’t eaten yet. Any advice is appreciated, thanks.

 

[MROO]

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!

 

[Sunshine_Chick]

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!

 

[bittyflock]

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!

Thank you very much. The geometry of their run is such that it would be quite hard for me to cover the whole thing. Would you advise limiting them to their coop where I can more effectively cover them? Any idea how dangerous it is for them to be exposed to this? Thank you for your great advice.

 

[lindaDH]

I hastily hung an old sofa cover and then soaked it. I only had the one cover so I put it on the most exposed side of the coop, which is to the east allowing the better air blowing from the west to still come through.

 

[JDChickChat]

I live in the Bay Area where wildfires are raging all around me. I’m quite worried about my hens in the very poor smoky air. I don’t really have a great way to bring them indoors and am wondering what people may know about how lethal this may be for them. We found a quite bloody egg today and I’m not sure if it predates the fire or not as we have eggs from a week ago that we haven’t eaten yet. Any advice is appreciated, thanks.

I have no advice but I just wanted to send my love and prayers.

 

[MROO]

Thank you very much. The geometry of their run is such that it would be quite hard for me to cover the whole thing. Would you advise limiting them to their coop where I can more effectively cover them? Any idea how dangerous it is for them to be exposed to this? Thank you for your great advice.

Sheets cover a great deal of area!