Extreme heat! Two chickens dead! Trying to save the others! HELP!

[lisahaschickens]

We are having an extreme heat wave in the Pacific Northwest. Yesterday we clocked 107F outside our coop, and 111F while driving in the car! The day before peaked at 105. Predictions for today put us at least at 105 again and for the rest of the week

I am out of town and my fiance is taking care of the chickens. He didn't realize the extreme heat situation until the afternoon on Monday. At that time it was 105 in the coop, so he brought them ice water, cold yogurt, and frozen vegetables and even though we have three open chicken doors, an open window, and veintilation all along the eaves of the roof of the coop, he also opened some bigger doors to try to get air moving. They chickens have access to a secure run at all times too, with shade.

In the morning yesterday, our two very favorite chickens were dead on the floor. We're heartbroken. We know that chickens sometimes die and we can accept that, but this seems like it should have been preventable.

So now the challenge is to keep the other 13 alive (we had 15

). Yesterday he bought two fans, but they are only small fans because almost all fans in our area were already sold out. He is running those in the coop across buckets of ice water. He also brings them new bowls of ice water to drink and play in every hour, along with cold food like frozen veggies and cold yogurt every hour in small amounts. They all made it through yesterday and this morning so far.

But... we are terrified! We can't seem to get the temperature down much in the coop no matter what we do. Does anyone have any other suggestions that could help us? This is so nervewracking. This weather is highly unusual for our area, but I know it is fairly common is some more southern parts of the US like central/southern California... much of Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, etc. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. This heat is SO hard on our birds and we are at a loss as to what more we can do....

 

[KellyHM]

Sounds like you're doing what you can aside from installing a window unit in the coop. People have done that before if you're willing to go to those lengths.

 

[crtrlovr]

Sounds like you're doing about everything you can do. If they can cool their feet, it will help, so keep some shallow pans they can walk through. If you have a water hose with a nozzle that has a "mist" setting, or if you can get a mister device somewhere like Lowes or Home Depot you might try that too. I hope you don't lose any more of your babies.

 

[mypicklebird]

Get a mister, or run a sprinkler nearby- evaporation can cool the air 5-10 degrees. Do they have shade? They need shade as well, if no shade- hang tarps to block the sun or something like that. Can you bring them into a cooler place? If you have mixed ages, the very young and very old will be at most risk, consider bringing into a place with AC- any chicks or older birds.

 

[lisahaschickens]

I have definitely considered it... though I don't think we have the skill to do it ourselves... we'd have to cut out and install a whole new window (the one we have would not allow for an a/c unit. It would be a huge production and massively expensive... but it is tempting.

What do people in the desert do?

 

[ke_ben]

Misters in front of the fans. It's been 115+ here for weeks, 100+ @10pm last night still. I don't use ice or ice water even, and cold treats don't stay cold long at these temps. I haven't lost any birds yet this summer.

Best of luck to you.

 

[lisahaschickens]

All chickens are the same age - about 24 weeks. All raised from the same batch of chicks. They should be in prime health!

We have thought about bringing them into the house, but we simply don't have anywhere in our house that we could put 13 chickens... but I keep thinking about it anyway.

And, yes, they have shade outside. And of course they spend most of their time right now inside to keep out of the sun/heat. However, yesterday, we added even more shade outside. We're hoping that maybe they'll spend some time out there now that there is even more shade. We'll see.

I will see if we can set up some kind of misting... I'm not sure how, but we will work on it.

Thank you for the ideas and support!

 

[Judy]

You can put something frozen (soda bottles filled with water and frozen for example) in a large container, a 5 gal bucket on its side would do for one or two, maybe a couple of 55 gal drums or a TV or refrigerator packing box, something of the sort -- lay it open on its side and put the ice in the box -- makes a sort of air conditioned room for them. If one is really looking rough, dunk her is a bucket of water for a minute, get her skin wet if possible. She'll be cool til she dries and that will take a while.

 

[amysflock]

I'm having the same problem, Lisa, although we're north of you so not quite as hot. It was 110 in my coop yesterday afternoon, and those chickies are way too hot. I have shaded the run with sheets, misted inside the runs with a big water bottle, and blocked the window with cardboard to keep the intense sun out, but our coop isn't insulated and frankly doesn't have the best ventilation (it's inside the barn). I'm going to try the pans of water today, I think. We don't have power or water out there, so I can't run fans or anything. I might yank the door inside the barn off and let the babies run around the rest of the barn, haven't decided.

 

[CheerfulHeart2]

So sorry to hear about your lost chickens. It sounds like the fiance is taking good care of them at this point. Somewhere I read it takes them about a week to adjust to the heat. The only other thing I wondered about was how good is the shade. Is it a shade clothe over the run or thick tree foliage? If it is only a shade cloth, that may not be enough for them. If you want to read up on what we do in Arizona, check out the first few and last few pages in the "where are you, Arizona" thread. For the most part, shade and water seems to do the trick. Misters work here, but I am not sure if it is dry enough up there for you to get the cooling effect. Good luck, it sounds like the new plan is working.