Rare 100+ degree weather in the Pacific Northwest

[HenHouse Henry]

Hey all, we just came out of a record-breaking heatwave. My hens are now 17 weeks old and this heatwave hit. I have never had to worry about chickens in extremely hot temps. I put extra water pans in the coop and floated liter bottles of frozen water in them, fed them watermelon (chilled). the coop temps reached the 90's. On the three hottest days I put a sprinkler on their roof and I could keep the temp. at 87-89. I was not ready to see the girls panting, it worried me even though I knew that's what they did to cool off. Well, it's back down in the 70s where it's supposed to be.
2 Blue Copper Marans, 1 Buff Orpington, 1 Black Autralorp, 1 Cream Legbar, and a Californa Gray. All of them came through like champs.
they should be laying in a few weeks. Good Luck to those who are still in the heatwave.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

It's been over 100 every day here for most of the literal day. So far everyone's doing good, but I'm still dreading opening the coop each morning.

 

[Sequel]

Hey all, we just came out of a record-breaking heatwave. My hens are now 17 weeks old and this heatwave hit. I have never had to worry about chickens in extremely hot temps. I put extra water pans in the coop and floated liter bottles of frozen water in them, fed them watermelon (chilled). the coop temps reached the 90's. On the three hottest days I put a sprinkler on their roof and I could keep the temp. at 87-89. I was not ready to see the girls panting, it worried me even though I knew that's what they did to cool off. Well, it's back down in the 70s where it's supposed to be.
2 Blue Copper Marans, 1 Buff Orpington, 1 Black Autralorp, 1 Cream Legbar, and a Californa Gray. All of them came through like champs.
they should be laying in a few weeks. Good Luck to those who are still in the heatwave.

I live in the PNW too, that was really something wasn’t it? One of the members of the local poultry Facebook group did the sprinkler on the roof too! Mine were out in the shade standing around a large plant saucer I put a bag of ice that had gone solid in. They pecked at it a bit but didn’t try to walk on it or anything. They all made it fine but I didn’t enjoy seeing them pant!

 

[Vicki F]

Same here. Inland northwest still triple digits but am most afraid of is low humidity & the 4th of July celebration fireworks. Any suggestions on emergency evacuation process with my 3 chickies?? I have a large dog crate & food/water. Some treats, any thing else a must??

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Same here. Inland northwest still triple digits but am most afraid of is low humidity & the 4th of July celebration fireworks. Any suggestions on emergency evacuation process with my 3 chickies?? I have a large dog crate & food/water. Some treats, any thing else a must??

Towel to put over the crate. Darkness will keep them calmer. And God forgot that gets bad, you can drench it before covering the cahw and it will help as a filter for some of the smoke

 

[Vicki F]

You are the best. Thanks!!
Would of never thought of that. Good luck to everyone getting through this heatwave & the weekend. God bless the USA & happy birthday to us all!!

 

[Secondof9]

Hey all, we just came out of a record-breaking heatwave. My hens are now 17 weeks old and this heatwave hit. I have never had to worry about chickens in extremely hot temps. I put extra water pans in the coop and floated liter bottles of frozen water in them, fed them watermelon (chilled). the coop temps reached the 90's. On the three hottest days I put a sprinkler on their roof and I could keep the temp. at 87-89. I was not ready to see the girls panting, it worried me even though I knew that's what they did to cool off. Well, it's back down in the 70s where it's supposed to be.
2 Blue Copper Marans, 1 Buff Orpington, 1 Black Autralorp, 1 Cream Legbar, and a Californa Gray. All of them came through like champs.
they should be laying in a few weeks. Good Luck to those who are still in the heatwave.

Good idea with the sprinkler on the roof. I'll remember that if we ever need it again (hopefully not soon). I worried about my girls too with the panting but they all came through fine. I gave them a head of refrigerated lettuce and kept putting ice cubes in a shallow dish of water; they seemed to really like that.

 

[Bonnie in western WA]

Hey all, we just came out of a record-breaking heatwave. My hens are now 17 weeks old and this heatwave hit. I have never had to worry about chickens in extremely hot temps. I put extra water pans in the coop and floated liter bottles of frozen water in them, fed them watermelon (chilled). the coop temps reached the 90's. On the three hottest days I put a sprinkler on their roof and I could keep the temp. at 87-89. I was not ready to see the girls panting, it worried me even though I knew that's what they did to cool off. Well, it's back down in the 70s where it's supposed to be.
2 Blue Copper Marans, 1 Buff Orpington, 1 Black Autralorp, 1 Cream Legbar, and a Californa Gray. All of them came through like champs.
they should be laying in a few weeks. Good Luck to those who are still in the heatwave.

I too watched my 6 girls panting during that awful weather. I felt so guilty, feeling like I should relocate them to our garage with a cool concrete floor (but such a setup for 14-wk-old birds would be difficult). I read that chickens don't like cold water so I just continued to check the ambient temp of their double-walled galvanized 8-gallon waterer. I also made sure they were free ranging so they could get under the shade of a tree. I added 3 shallow cat litter boxes filled with dusting bath (=soil+sand+dusting powder or wood ash if I had it). They loved it. I also checked the 2-gallon galvanized waterers in their free range area. I don't change water daily. I placed a fan blowing into their pen but it didn't do anything and they weren't too crazy about it. I replaced the plexiglass on their 2 coop side windows (that came with the coop-pen kit) with 1/4-inch welded hardwire for air flow. I'm going to drill door holes up high for heat to escape and cover with wire. Yesterday, I added velcro to the plexiglass for when I need to put it on the outside for winter (and be able to leave the inside wire up year-round). I'm south of Spanaway, WA.

 

[Bonnie in western WA]

Same here. Inland northwest still triple digits but am most afraid of is low humidity & the 4th of July celebration fireworks. Any suggestions on emergency evacuation process with my 3 chickies?? I have a large dog crate & food/water. Some treats, any thing else a must??

Emergency evac? Like in case of a fire? Sounds like you're starting off good with the large dog crate (if they will go in) and food/water. Maybe a treat feed by hand to calm them if needed.

 

[Bonnie in western WA]

PNW we'll be back into the 80s with extremely high humidity, even up to 100%. I have to be away for 10 days with a chicken sitter, so the 6 girls won't be able to free range much. I sure hope the sitter and the chickens fare through OK, and pray for no wildfires! Get prepared.