Heartbroken

[BarredRockMom]

Awww, that just stinks & we are all sad to hear it.

I don't know if this is something that could work for you, but it might. Since the heat is so hard on them, one of the things that I do is give 'em a little soak in a chicken spa. Alright, technically it's a large oval bucket, but it does the trick wetting them down & cooling them off. The 'touch me nots' aren't big on the catch part, but the cool down & release they like.

Also, when it's super hot (& oppressively humid to boot) I give them a bowl of cold Pedialyte to drink.

Lots of folks try ice cubes in their water, freezing watermelon, etc.

Most of all, it's just awful to lose one of your babies. Losing two at once just makes my heart hurt for you.

 

[Glitterchicks]

Was high of 106

I'm so sorry... I'd be devastated to lose any of mine.
I asked because it's getting into the 100s here too and I'm starting to worry.

 

[BirdsInParadise]

Awww, that just stinks & we are all sad to hear it.

I don't know if this is something that could work for you, but it might. Since the heat is so hard on them, one of the things that I do is give 'em a little soak in a chicken spa. Alright, technically it's a large oval bucket, but it does the trick wetting them down & cooling them off. The 'touch me nots' aren't big on the catch part, but the cool down & release they like.

Also, when it's super hot (& oppressively humid to boot) I give them a bowl of cold Pedialyte to drink.

Lots of folks try ice cubes in their water, freezing watermelon, etc.

Most of all, it's just awful to lose one of your babies. Losing two at once just makes my heart hurt for you.

I've been giving my girls frozen watermelon.
I've got a children's pool that I will now put in their run with a couple inches of cold water and have decided to hose the run down twice a day during this heat.
I'm just so BUMMED that this happened.

 

[BirdsInParadise]

They all seemed to do well last summer in similar heat conditions and now I can't help but think I really f**ked up and should have known better to not have the pool/ frozen water bottles/ watered down ground for them.

 

[Folly's place]

Here in Michigan, where we are offended by 95F occasionally, we get fluffy small combed birds. You should look at those birds with big single combs and tighter feathering, to handle that awful heat better. Not that any chicken is happy at 100F or higher!
Mary

 

[Glitterchicks]

I've been giving my girls frozen watermelon.
I've got a children's pool that I will now put in their run with a couple inches of cold water and have decided to hose the run down twice a day during this heat.
I'm just so BUMMED that this happened.

I've tried the watermelon also. They love it. I also spray down a willow tree they hang out under so that it sprinkles down on them for about an hour.

 

[BirdsInParadise]

I've tried the watermelon also. They love it. I also spray down a willow tree they hang out under so that it sprinkles down on them for about an hour.

I'm gonna look into getting a mister set up for the remaining ladies.
I'm not expecting the heat to diminish by that much this summer.

 

[MROO]

Was high of 106

OUCH!

Our temps have been hovering in the high 90's for a week, now. It was batter, today, but the heat's coming back later this week. We've started freezing water bottles to put inside the waterers. We rotate them out into the waterers and back to the freezer as often as needed - at least once a day, more often if it's super hot.

We also keep a few frozen bottles to use in our cooler, so we have to "mark" the chicken bottles to make sure they stay separate. We do that by removing about a quarter cup of water, then putting in a few drops of food coloring before replacing the lid. The bottles "live" in the freezer in an old ice-cream bucket, where they don't touch anything else, just in case!

 

[MROO]

I've tried the watermelon also. They love it. I also spray down a willow tree they hang out under so that it sprinkles down on them for about an hour.

Try freezing the watermelon in quarters. It's an awful lot of fun to watch their reactions! We've also found the Dollar Stores a good place for bags of frozen berries. And grapes freeze easily, too, but you might want to halve those for bantams and peeps. Mine also enjoy cold applesauce. I wonder how that freezes? I guess we'll try that, next!

 

[staceyj]

Just found my two Marans deceased.
No obvious injuries/wounds.
Maybe the heat.
They were fine two days ago.
They had plenty of water/food/shade.
Returned today and one was deceased in the coop and another underneath.
I'm crushed...

Oh gosh. I am so very sorry for the loss of your birds.