Heatstroke

[SunshineSilkies]

Halo,
How is your hen?

Before I go to work, every morning I check on all of my chickens. It was soooo hot here yesterday. This morning when I checked on them, I found 11 dead chicks!!!! It has to be from the heat because none of them have been sick. No eye problems, no respiratory problems,,,,,nothing. It had to be heat stroke. I removed all of the sand and shavings and disinfected with Oxine. When it was dry, I put new sand and shavings. Also put a fan in the pen. Came home from work and the rest seem to be doing fine. I really think the chicks had heat strokes...Halo, out of the 11, 3 were blues from your eggs

 

[thebritt]

Quote:
I don't know how it is there- but I'm thinking Austin may be a little more liberal-minded than some cities in you area...That being said, check the "grow shops" - May be listed as "hydroponic gardening" outlets. Out in California, pot growing is HUGE (if you hadn't heard). Anyway, these places do sell solar-powered ventilation systems you may be able to use, but they're not cheap.
Since you're in Austin, and the chickens are from Austin, ideally the birds will become acclimated, as long as they are able to get some relief from extremes. Again, maybe a misty sprayer would help.

 

[redhen]

i just read today what one lady does is wet a towl and put in an animal crate and set the hen on the towel and put a fan blowing on the hen and cool towel. Dont know if it would work or not..good luck!

 

[annek]

It has been so hot here too, very close to 100 and very humid. I built a movable run that I had them in yesterday, they were in the shade, I dug holes for them and put in frozen bottles but they were so hot. Today I put them in the run in the morning, then around noon moved them back to the coop. I have a fan in there and one wall is screen but when its hot, its hot.

I also give them ice cold pieces of watermelon around 2 pm to pick on and cool off.

I read on another thread where a lady put water in a shallow pan to let the chickens walk in it to cool off. I tried that today and sure enough a few of them stood in the water drinking and picking at the stuff they kicked in it. I am going to do that again tomorrow. I do have to change it once or twice but I do worry about them out there. They just pant and spread their wings. How do you know when they are going to get heat stroke?

Is it okay to wet the soil down? I wasn't sure if I should do that or not. I think I am going to look into misters but was kind of wondering if it would really help when the humidity is almost 100 percent anyway. I put down a few bags of sand when I did the covered run but it is pretty well mixed up now.

 

[Katy]

When it's too hot here I wet down the run in the shady areas and I keep a shallow tray filled with cool water that they can stand in. A quick way to help an overheated chicken to cool down is to put it's legs in cool water.

 

[thebritt]

Quote:
The misters cool the air around them, that's why they work. Rabbit people use them in their rabbitries(sp?).

I really like the "digging the hole in the ground" idea. Of course it must be in the shade, but I;ll bet that's a good thing! Any depth you can get away from the hot surface can only help. (that's why the moles and voles and whatnot stay underground during the day!).

 

[halo]

Vicki, Im so sorry you lost the little ones. This heat and humidity is so hard on young babies. My girl isnt much better. I have her in the barn where its the coolest and theres a breeze all the time. She's fairly alert, but can't stand, wont eat, and wont drink much water. If she's not any better by this evening, Ill do the kindest thing for her.

Sheesh, I hope I dont have this happen to any more.

 

[ecopepper]

DH got a mister with 2 spouts and I put that out today....Gave mine watermelon and a beach umbrella...I can move the cage but threw my back out and am just kinda watching my yard to see where the shade will be best..... Will go out and put a bowl of water in there too...I am concerned too...It has gotten really hot in Orlando and the rain comes at night now so it doesn't cool off like it was! Mine are 6 weeks old...I wonder what else we can do...I love all the ideas!! Such smart people on here!! Thanks for the thread and help!! Hope your hen is well!! They have hose misters at walmart for under 10.00 and you could put them around coop/run area. They just hook up to your hose!! Plus it waters the area too!!

 

[welovechickens]

I live near Austin, too. It's SO uncomfortable outside! My girls pant all the time. I keep their water full and fresh, and have a box fan blowing gently into their coop/run. I think I'll put some ice cubes in their waterer! LOL