Poultry dying in 100-plus weather

[jackiedon]

No rain here. Cloudy and thunder but we've been getting that for weeks but no rain.

Who was that in Arkansas that was trying to do a dance to get their chicken to lay but it kept raining this spring. Please start dancing again!!!

jackie

 

[RanchGranny]

Sorry to hear about so many chickens & rabbits dying from the heat! I live in SW Washington State, and though we typically have cooler summers than the southern states (average high mid 80s), this year we've had a lot of upper 90's. I've been worried about my little flock (only have four hens) so I added a fan that blows into their coop during the day. On the last really hot day we had, I noticed the girls were breathing through their mouths. It was 95 in their house. I remembered that our friends who own commerical meat chicken barns use "misters" on their birds. Didn't know how my girls would react if I hosed them down, but set the sprayer on the hose, turned it to "mist," talked sweetly and started slow, with a quick spray and then off for a few seconds. They were shocked, of course, as it was their first intro to water that was not in a container, but they didn't over-react like I thought they might. I sprayed them again, a little longer, and did that a few times. The actually seemed to enjoy scratching around in their damp dirt after it was all said and done. I did that a couple of times that day and I don't know if it helped them feel better, but I felt better for having tried to help them out, and no one died either from the heat or from my spraying them. I figured if it didn't hurt 70,000 of my friend's finest, it wouldn't hurt my little gals. All's well that ends well!

I also read in another post here that someone puts a cat litter box with wet sand in the shady part of their coop and says the sand stays cool and the chickens sit in the boxes during the heat of the day, so I might try that, as well.

Kudos to the folks who brought their animals in the house, too! I'd have done the same if my house wasn't hotter inside than the temperatures outside! Kudos to all of you with creative solutions to keep our little friends comfortable in these hot, endless days of summer!

~Pam, Proud Ranch Granny to 4 darling granddaughters, four friendly hens (Easter, the Easter Egger, Diamond, our Golden Sex-Link, and Fiesta & Salsa, our Rhode Island Reds), 1 rescued mare, Lakota, 6 rescued (& spayed & neutered!) cats, 2 rescued dogs (Ash, 7 yr Malamute female and Kraemer, 2 yr Miniature Poodle male, also spayed & neutered)) and one wonderful, hardworking, supportive husband who keeps us all going!

 

[hooligan]

Ok we are currently getting rain in the Pocola, OK and Fort Smith, AR area! WOOOHOOO!!!

 

[ninjapoodles]

Wow, today was blissful most of the day. Humidity still, of course, outrageous, but I really don't think that the actual temp got above 81F! What a relief. It was good "running around" weather, so I went to a goat farm and bought 6 gallons of goat's milk, then to the feed store for oyster shell and gamebird starter, and then to a local farm for 5 gallon bucketloads of both sweet banana and Anaheim peppers for pickling. Probably shoulda mowed the lawn, but...maybe tomorrow!

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
It started raining here around 5:30, a good hard rain and it's still raining a bit @ 8:26 PM. It can rain all weekend for all I care, but the chickens wouldn't be too happy.

 

[mtnhomechick]

Here in Mtn. Home we had about 2 inches of rain last night. A town 10 miles from here reported 4 inches. It's strange here that way. I've been on chicken duty big time these last two weeks. Changing water every two hours in the extreme heat. The best thing I think that helped the most was just plain hosing them down twice a day. OHHHHHHHHH.....they acted like they hated it but guess what? As soon as I did and wetted down the pen floor ( dirt and straw ) they really perked up. I also gave them lots of cold veggies like corn on cob and lettuce, cukes etc. Used fans in both coup and pen too. I really thought I would lose some but so far OK.

After last nights downpour I went out today and raked the whole thing out and put down dry straw.....I swear they like that as much as food. Scratch and Peck!

It was so dang humid it took everything out of me but I feel better now like they are in ship shape and healthy. It was cooler today about 89 but still humid.

I do the wet sand thing too. Purchased a small kids pool in May and fill it with sand. They love it and during the extreme temps I wetted that too.

They looked more like little pigs with their dirty feet but at least they stopped panting.

 

[jackiedon]

I am jealous!!!! Still no rain!!!! The cooler temps were nice.

jackie

 

[verycherry]

We got rain yesterday too. The high today is 91, so a VERY nice break from the 100+ weather. The chickens were out for a long time this morning. They usually put theirselves up in the coop around 11:00 when it get hot, but my daughter had to shoo them in so we could go back inside the house (we don't let them free range if we're not out with them).

Sorry you didn't get any rain Jackie.

Maybe soon though.

 

[the1much]

1 reason all those chickens die in arkansas is that theres hundreds inside a coop with fans,,,,,100 outside means 150 inside ( my own guessing #) when you factor in all the body heat.
i have my sprinklers on a timer,,,when it goes off ( last month was almost everyday of 100-105 ,, our cool days were 95 hehe

) the chickens, guineas,pheasant run to it,,,,,my peafowl still aint sure bout being wet,,hehe

 

[hooligan]

Quote:
The article was talking about grower houses....of course they're inside and hot. And its about 20,000+ in a house not just hundreds.

So is anyone else being pelted with rain? Its been raining here since yesterday