Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[al6517]

It's harder to breathe in high humidity...it was 108 today and we'd take arid heat over humid heat any day!

Sixty-seven percent humidity today....

My point Exactly !!! Bee, misters have killed more birds from heat stress due to excessive humidity levels than they have ever hoped to save. Not to mention hot very humid air will increase your fly population, stink, and bacteria levels, mold/mildew.............. all sorts of other problems, along with CRd and other respitory issues, people never think of. Misters might make a human feel better................ news flash though............ the chickens don't.

 

[Minchi]

My point Exactly !!! Bee, misters have killed more birds from heat stress due to excessive humidity levels than they have ever hoped to save. Not to mention hot very humid air will increase your fly population, stink, and bacteria levels, mold/mildew.............. all sorts of other problems, along with CRd and other respitory issues, people never think of. Misters might make a human feel better................ news flash though............ the chickens don't.

I grew up in Dallas, went to Florida at the worst time of the year and wore black wool (marching band), and now I live in Colorado. In North East (and coastal) Texas and Florida you get the high humidity. In Colorado you get the dry atmosphere and high altitude. I have Asthma so I notice the air a little more then most and I will tell you the humidity was by far the worst to breath. Spending every weekend in the hospital convinced me of that but I have learned that you can die of dehydration here and not even realize it. My biggest fears with the misters is that a person puts them in the coop and causes mold to grow. If you set them up in the open and the birds have the option to use them I don't see how they are a concern? From what everyone says and what I have learned watching mine they know what they want. Granted there are a few things that they may want that you can't let them have but they generally don't like getting wet from what I can tell. From that I would assume that they won't go under the mister unless they are really hot.

Now I am still new and if I am incorrect on my thoughts please tell me but I have not heard of one chicken killed by a mister yet. Lots of people in Colorado use them from what I have seen on the Colorado Forum.

 

[Gramma Chick]

Fred , Why would you kill a chicken because it limps ? Are you assuming it has a broken leg ? We have a chicken that was attacked by a fox ..she is almost healed ..she was limping yesterday . Today she is not limping . Dont chickens stumble & sometimes get hurt also ? She still did her job ...She still laid a egg every day . we have a small flock of 4 hens & 4 teenagers

 

[Fred's Hens]

Fred , Why would you kill a chicken because it limps ? Are you assuming it has a broken leg ? We have a chicken that was attacked by a fox ..she is almost healed ..she was limping yesterday . Today she is not limping . Dont chickens stumble & sometimes get hurt also ? She still did her job ...She still laid a egg every day . we have a small flock of 4 hens & 4 teenagers

You have me at a disadvantage. Some context? I've seen many chickens recover nicely from limping, many times just within a few days. Sometimes I isolate a bird so she can rest the sprain. Again, I'm at a bit of loss here for some context. Sorry.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Yes this heat wave is making me glad now I had the coop placed under the maple shade at the hot part of the day and that the planks have shrunk enough to make it positively breezy in there...something that will have to be amended before winter I suppose. My chickens are lucky that they can go play in the woods or hang out under the cabin where it's ten degrees cooler. The broody was panting some in the afternoon so I opened her door to see if she wanted out, but she didn't take the chicks outside yet (day two) just sat at the 'window' and watched the world, so i put the screen back in. I guess if they were confined to the coop and run, I'd be concerned about them in the heat and would be cutting even more holes in the coop but I wouldn't have the luxury of spraying water on them or running an a/c to them, maybe give them all a popsicle and tell them to quit complaining. I think that's what my parents did to me.

 

[NotAFarm]

, maybe give them all a popsicle and tell them to quit complaining. I think that's what my parents did to me.

Was it made from Kool-aid frozen in a Tupperware sleeve?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Fred , Why would you kill a chicken because it limps ? Are you assuming it has a broken leg ? We have a chicken that was attacked by a fox ..she is almost healed ..she was limping yesterday . Today she is not limping . Dont chickens stumble & sometimes get hurt also ? She still did her job ...She still laid a egg every day . we have a small flock of 4 hens & 4 teenagers

That may have been me. I made a comment about having a hen that injured herself but recovered after a little special feeding. She'd hurt her neck somehow. I think that was in this thread.

I tried to say I did not want a chicken that had injured herself like that in my breeding flock. She was fine in the laying flock as long as I was not hatching eggs. If you needed a clarification, I obviously did not say it well.

I'm trying to develop a small flock that is less prone to disease or injury and I raise them mostly to eat. The eggs are just a side benefit. I don't sell them, I give the excess away. When a chicken volunteers to be next for the pot, who am I to deny them?

Somehow that hen hurt herself. I'm not sure how or why. Maybe it was something totally unavoidable, but maybe she was accident-prone. Since I eat them anyway, why not eat one that does something I don't like, whether behavioral or getting hurt, just in case something about it is hereditary. If you are not hatching eggs, it's probably not a concern.

 

[therapydoglady]

About the misters...As I said before, it is very arid out here, and the fan is hung very high (don't want chickens roosting on it). When it is so hot, and the fan is on, the mist mostly evaporates before it ever has time to hit the ground. I would never have mud in my chicken run. If the girls want mud, they have to go to the horse troughs, were I purposly keep it muddy (horse hooves need it out here to keep their hooves from cracking), and they do scratch around in it when they are foraging. But when the ambient temperature is 110+, and the wind is that hot too, they are in the run outside the coop. They aren't as stupid as some people think. I'll put a thermometer in there and see what it brings the temp down to. They need some sort of "decore" in there anyway - I never got around to putting up twinkling lights...

 

[Beekissed]

That may have been me. I made a comment about having a hen that injured herself but recovered after a little special feeding. She'd hurt her neck somehow. I think that was in this thread.
I tried to say I did not want a chicken that had injured herself like that in my breeding flock. She was fine in the laying flock as long as I was not hatching eggs. If you needed a clarification, I obviously did not say it well.
I'm trying to develop a small flock that is less prone to disease or injury and I raise them mostly to eat. The eggs are just a side benefit. I don't sell them, I give the excess away. When a chicken volunteers to be next for the pot, who am I to deny them?
Somehow that hen hurt herself. I'm not sure how or why. Maybe it was something totally unavoidable, but maybe she was accident-prone. Since I eat them anyway, why not eat one that does something I don't like, whether behavioral or getting hurt, just in case something about it is hereditary. If you are not hatching eggs, it's probably not a concern.

I take issue with a chronically limping hen myself....limping is sign of discomfort if it came on suddenly from an injury or ailment of some sort. If it continues past a week or more, I decide if I want this animal to live in obvious discomfort or give her some mercy. If it doesn't correct in that length of time, this is a bird that is at an obvious disadvantage in a free range flock...she can't forage well, she can't get up on a roost or dismount from one without pain, she can't get into the nest boxes for the same reason, she cannot avoid aerial preds, she cannot compete at the food trough and she may even get picked on by some birds.

If this bird was born with a short leg, tendon, joint deformity, etc., the same reasoning applies....she may lay 3 eggs a day but she isn't something I want in my genetic pool or in my robust free range flock.

You can't run a farm on sympathy. Practicality is generally the safest and most effective tool one can utilize when raising livestock.

 

[Fred's Hens]

I take issue with a chronically limping hen myself....limping is sign of discomfort if it came on suddenly from an injury or ailment of some sort. If it continues past a week or more, I decide if I want this animal to live in obvious discomfort or give her some mercy. If it doesn't correct in that length of time, this is a bird that is at an obvious disadvantage in a free range flock...she can't forage well, she can't get up on a roost or dismount from one without pain, she can't get into the nest boxes for the same reason, she cannot avoid aerial preds, she cannot compete at the food trough and she may even get picked on by some birds.

If this bird was born with a short leg, tendon, joint deformity, etc., the same reasoning applies....she may lay 3 eggs a day but she isn't something I want in my genetic pool or in my robust free range flock.

You can't run a farm on sympathy. Practicality is generally the safest and most effective tool one can utilize when raising livestock.

Such good responses from both Ridgerunner and Beekissed. What you see is a mentality or agricultural impetus in what we do. No good farmer goes about recklessly killing off his/her livestock, but..... no stock is ever allowed to suffer and weak stock is not allowed to breed, going forward.

Last month, one of my very favorite hens, a hen I had bred for over 3 generations, developed either egg bound or ascites or both. It is sad, it is frustrating and it is disappointing. I gave her every chance. I soaked her twice in a wash tub of warm water, all to no avail. I cannot spend and won't spend $100 on a $12 bird, so a vet call is out of the question. Besides, I've seen this before and I know how this turns out. After a few days, and seeing no progress, only a degrading condition, I ended her suffering. I had planned on her being in the spring breeding program, but it is just as well that didn't happen. There's no joy in putting down a hen. There is no spite in it and no arrogance, but it simply must be done. Her body now nourishes some young trees we have growing.

Ah yes, "The Lion King" as Simba is taught the Circle of Life by his father, Mufasa.