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!
