Is It Hot? Check on your chickens!!! We lost 2 young pullets today

[Nifty-Chicken]

Of our three 3 month old pullets (2 easter eggers and 1 welsummer) 2 just died, one EE (Cleo) and the Welsummer (Goldie).

The worst part of all this is the thought that we could have prevented it. The whole, "What if we would have checked earlier?" "What if we would have cooled them off more?" ugh... it's torture!

We were so looking forward to a bunch of blue and chocolate eggs in a few months. I think I'm more upset than our 4 year old daughter.

So, if it is expected to be unexpectedly hot where you are (like it has been here) then double check on your girls. Make sure they have LOTS of cold water and misters if needed!

 

[jjthink]

So sorry this happened....:hugs
JJ

 

[speckledhen]

I'm really sorry. You guys are really hot out there in CA right now.

 

[MissPrissy]

Sorry you lost your girls.

 

[Chirpy]

I'm so sorry Nifty. That would have been awful to have happen. Hot weather is hard on all animals (and people).

 

[PotterWatch]

I'm so sorry you lost them! Makes me nervous because we are leaving for the weekend and I won't be able to make sure they stay cool enough. I don't really want to rely on the neighbors to come over every morning and turn on their fan, give them cold water, etc. but I don't really have a choice.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Thanks everyone.

I generally beat down on myself for mistakes and it's just hard when it could have "easily" been prevented. Hind sight is truly 20/20!!

I guess the silver lining is that at least I got out there before the third and final chick died.

I wonder if this kind of stuff makes it easier for kids to deal with death when they get older. It was interesting watching how my daughter reacted. She was sad, but surprisingly okay and fine with handling the dead birds (no worry for germs, etc... the deaths were very recent).

I'm bummed, but glad we got there in time to save the third one.

 

[Reinbeau]

Nifty, how hot is hot? It's supposed to be in the 90's here tomorrow (again). My girls just went out into the coop today.

 

[3peeps]

I'm really sorry this happened. I had to leave for two days to work and was worried all of the first about the heat, so I called a friend to check the girls. I thought for sure I'd come home to dead chickens. I can partly relate to your feelings and hope you don't beat yourself up too much. I was kicking myself at work for not making proper arrangements when I left....I think it can happen to anyone, thinking things will be OK or not checking soon enough.

I was wondering the same thing about our daughter...if I found dead chickens, then what do I do or tell her? We always try to do the honest route with all difficult things. I guess the art is in the fine tuning of the explanations.

Again, so sorry.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

I think we were up to 106 or 107 today. It is suppose to be 108 tomorrow.