We moved onto this property last June and everything has been peachy and then decided to get 16 chickens and have them live in what used to be the goat house. We had no where to raise them except the spare bedroom at the time, which was a massive mistake, but during that experience we had several power outages. Not unusual but a bit on the strange side since I had zero outages after buying a generator at the old house. Spring comes along and we have the flock out in the new converted coop when out of no where there is non-stop daily downpours and tornado warnings (in PA??) which end up flooding our property multiple times. I have never seen so much water come down so fast. This resulted in A LOT OF DIGGING to trench away all this water for the next bunch of downpours that occurred. The coop ends up in a muddy mess during every downpour which causes us to have to lay down more straw to keep things semi-dry. Then comes June and things seem to start to dry up but now we are hit with a severe heat wave that has seen temps from 91-97 all week. I have not experienced a June with temps this severe before. Those poor birds were panting more than a dog does and I spent hours icing their waterers, giving them frozen fruits/veggie water bowls, trying to keep them cool by hanging tarps to create shade. Today it hit 97 and I had to put the portable AC in their coop to help them as they were panting hard with their wings open.
I am not familiar with how hardy chickens are but these birds were surely put to the test during their first 17 weeks and still have 90+ degree weather to deal with the next 4-6 days.
Anyone else experience hardship during their first year with your birds?
I am not familiar with how hardy chickens are but these birds were surely put to the test during their first 17 weeks and still have 90+ degree weather to deal with the next 4-6 days.
Anyone else experience hardship during their first year with your birds?
