coop fire

[SimplyLivinthatFarmLife]

Poor Christie! I am so sorry this happened to you and your birds. You said you’re putting aspirin in your water for the most badly burned one. Since others have mentioned airway inflammation, it occurs to me that, since aspirin is a potent anti-inflammatory drug, it might be appropriate to put it in the water for the rest of the flock as well. If they’ve avoided inhaling hot fumes, that would be a wonderful thing. I’d expect them to be showing symptoms by now but I’m not sure about the onset of symptoms for respiratory damage with smoke and super-heated air.

I want to put this very delicately. This is NOT your fault. You only know what you know. You made a perfectly reasonable assumption that as it was so cold, your chickens needed heat. They actually don’t need it—not where you live and not even where I live at nearly a mile high in western SD. Please, please trust me on this. Take the surviving heat lamps and pack them carefully with your chick-brooding supplies. You don’t ever have to put them in your coops again. This could have not only killed your chickens. You yourself and your family have had (thank God) a very narrow escape.

What your birds need from you, shelter-wise, in summer and winter is good ventilation, high up where it won’t make the roosts drafty, and protection from wind and rain. We started the autumn season this year with sub-zero temperatures and nearly two feet of snow. No heat in my coops. That was a very sudden onset to winter for us, but none of my birds have suffered from it. I have no heat in my coops. I have had 2.5 gallon buckets frozen nearly to the core, but no harm to my poultry.

If your coop gets humid with the cold, you may have some frostbite on the combs. Some of my large-combed cockerels have a few spots. They don’t seem to suffer with it, though I’d expect it must cause at least a little discomfort. Their behavior and apparent good spirits have not flagged. Unless you’re going for show birds, this isn’t cause enough to heat your coop. Adding more space and/or ventilation will do more toward handsome combs than a heat lamp.

As you rebuild, keep ventilation in mind, face them away from the prevailing wind, and make sure to give them lots of space. More space per bird means less humidity. Don’t insulate. That only holds in the moisture in. If you want light, I recommend LED or solar, permanently mounted, preferably to the ceiling. ( they can still be plug-in if necessary, with a timer too, if you like.)

Chickens are very tough birds—much tougher than we humans are. They honestly and truly don’t need supplemental heat where you live. In fact it can be a danger if you lose power in a particularly cold spell. Accustomed to the heat, they could suffer from the sudden loss of it.

Again, I am so sorry for your loss and at the same time, so grateful this tragedy wasn’t nearly as bad as it might have been. Don’t kick yourself. You didn’t know, but now that you do, this never needs to happen to you again.

Great information shared!

 

[SimplyLivinthatFarmLife]

I'm so sorry for your loss . Praying that your girls that survived the fire will be okay.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Thank you so much. It has been an extremely hard day for me and my girls. I appreciate your kindness and the information that you have provided to me. I did not realize they did not need heat because it was so cold at night I thought that they did need it. I am still learning things to do and not to do. This is my first time having chickens and I have only had them since mid April. This was horrific. We had 70 chickens and 55 were killed in the fire. Everyone of them had names and most of them would act like a puppy in so many ways, like walking up to us to be held and pet. They would follow us around and would come when called. Some of them we hatched not too long ago and they were in the house for a long time because of the cold outside so they really loved us a lot, and 10 babies that were born after them that a hen hatched, our first broody hen. We love our birds so much and we are always around them. My girls are homeschooled so they are use to getting up and helping with them everyday and some days doing school outside to be around them. I am just so grateful that it wasn't worse and that my family and myself are all ok. I am also glad that they all didn't die.

I can only imagine how devastating. A very hard lesson learned.
So some were chicks without a hen? The ones with the broody hen wouldn't have needed heat.

 

[DiYMama540]

Really hate to hear this
So sorry!

I'm in Virginia, and as cold as I feel when I go outside, my birds are all fine. It does take a while to wrap your head around the fact they can tolerate the temps, but think of all the smaller, wild birds you still see in winter. Our plump ladies have way more insulation than them.
Hoping for a speedy recovery for your surviving birds! Also, best of luck rebuilding!

 

[aart]

Must have been a pretty big coop to hold 70 birds.
Did the entire coop burn to the ground?
Was it attached to the house or just close to it?
Devastating.

 

[Marinefam2053]

Last night my chicken coops caught on fire. I lost 55 chickens, but 14 made it alive. One of them ended up with her feet burnt. Can I put burn cream on her feet?

I’m so sorry to hear about this. I don’t really have any advise to give. I hope that your girl pulls through. I’d think as long as she’s drinking she should be ok, if she burned on her neck and it’s swollen, I’d be also concerned about what you can’t see that could be swollen inside her airway.

 

[CatWhisperer]

How horrible, so sorry. I can’t imagine what you are going through. Best wishes on recovery.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Very sorry for your losses. I live in the Mountains of Western NC and don’t use heat. Wishing you the best on recovering from this tragedy and that your little hen recovers

 

[ariri30]

So sorry for your lose. That’s one thing I learned here in BYC, not to ever use a heat lamp because of the danger of a fire. I read so many times here chickens Don’t need heat during the winter. I was shock to see how well they do without heat.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

Must have been a pretty big coop to hold 70 birds.
Did the entire coop burn to the ground?
Was it attached to the house or just close to it?
Devastating.

I believe she had 3 coops, and from the way I understood it, they're side by side. They're located beside her house. There's always a possibility that I'm wrong, but that's just the way I have pictured it.