Chicks drowning in rain?

[Moonkit]

Quote:
I beg to differ, I lost one black silkie and nearly lost a grey silkie during a rain when they stayed in the lowest part of the run and drowned. My parents found them both underwater while the other chicks had moved into the coop. Had they moved 6 inches to the right, they would have only gotten wet. The grey survived, but the black did not. It took over 2 hours of drying and warming before the grey one could sit up and she's fully recovered now (and has been re-dubbed Stormy).

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

I think that wives tale has more to do with them being chilled than drowning. If your babies have a broody or other heat source (or don't need one anymore) they should be fine

but chicks most certainly can drown, I've lost a couple to deep water bowls and puddles from heavy rain

 

[Eris]

Moonkit, I don't believe they are talking about drowning by being in a puddle, or a low spot that fills with rain. I think they mean drowning by the rain drops going in their mouths. That's unfortunate about your silkie.

 

[HappyPlace]

I know that chick/ens could actually drown. Mine, luckily, are on a fairly level part of the yard and nothing bigger than a very small, half-filled plastic dog bowl under the coop that they might get in. I am very sorry about your silkie, Moonkit.

The guy was specific in saying that they would drown because they were catching rain with their mouths, though. I was skeptical, and after watching my chicks today as it's rained off and on, it's kind of funny... This guy swears he has about 30 chickens and that every time it starts to rain, he runs right out and puts them in the coop. Maybe if he wasn't so quick, he would see that it's not a big deal...?

 

[Hawkeye95]

Not sure how this myth was connected to chickens... never heard that. However-- I have heard this about turkeys! Since I was a kid, I knew this to be "true" about turkeys. We've had many turkeys over the years, and I don't know what to think, really. Never seen one drown in the rain.. but we did have one drown (either drowned or got overly soaked) in a big rain storm- but it was coming down in buckets. And no, it was not a newborn turkey. Possibly turkeys drown more than chickens, which might be where this myth started. But not just during a rain. I know that as a kid, I don't remember our chicks ever drowning, but our baby turkeys would drown all the time! They would get into anything that held water- even a larger chicken waterer and dead they would be. I have a Royal Palm right now, and when she was little, I never had any pans of water set out or anything she could get into... just in case.

But she's a big girl now and has been in rain storms and has lived through them all.

 

[RPw1690]

I had 10 5 week old guinea keets, today, they were all out in an enclosed pen, under trees, and after the rain, I came out and found one keet in the transport cage, laid out flat, no trauma, but quite dead. The other 9 were fine. All of them have been out in the rain before, and never went under any cover. So I started looking to see if this has happened before. I assume it drowned...