Stay cool guys. We hit 102 before we finally got some relief and much needed rain. Grass crunched under foot and in spite of doing all I could to keep my birds cool including turning a fan on them I lost an older hen to heat stroke. It's the hottest that it's been since I started keeping chickens 8 years ago.

Summer is great but that much heat ain't fun.
I have been known to dunk hot chickens in a bucket of water. Not too cold though. They even float!
 
I have been known to dunk hot chickens in a bucket of water. Not too cold though. They even float!
I did that with my girls who were really uncomfortable. Took a big bowl of pleasantly chilly water out and stood them in it up to their 'wing pits' They struggled at first then went 'ahhhhhh' and just stood in the water. I had to lift them out but I figured that getting their bellies cooled off was a good thing.

Everyone spent the heat of the day outside in the shade. We did have a good breeze going but I had no warning that any one of them was in dangerous distress until I found Henni Penni lying in a corner, fighting to stay awake and unable to walk more than two steps before collapsing and going back to sleep.

4 days later she wasn't eating even scrambled eggs but would lie close to the water holder in her pen so she could drink.

When I took her out of the pen and tried to get her to walk she would wobble and fall over after a couple of steps. She couldn't support her own weight and would drift to one side. That was when I put two and two together and got stroke.

Looked up heat stroke and yep, symptoms fit.

I put her down at that point since she wasn't eating. I didn't want her to suffer.

My first loss to heat. She was an older hen. At least 6, maybe 7.

This heat has been brutal on human and animal alike. Almost makes me look forward to fall......almost.....
 

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