Third lost hen

[flrn]

I recently lost 2 chickens this week to a bobcat within 2 days. I have kept the girls in the coop since the incident, leaving 4 hens. Today I come home from work, and find one of my hens laying half in and half out of the coop and run entrance. I was able to move her easily, but she began to vomit. She has since passed, but I'm wondering why she died. I now have 2 red rocks, and 1 white leghorn left. None of the chickens looked sick or ill. I'm not sure, but someone told me she could of had a heart attack. It has been extremely hot outside, but there is plenty of room and shade for the chickens to get out of the sun, and water always available. Any ideas?

 

[AZChiknGoddess]

The stress of the attack my have gotten to her. Or possibly heat? I had a bobcat get to mine and they were stressed out for a while. Had a coyote get one a couple of days ago and my egg production is down by half from the 5 left.

 

[AZChiknGoddess]

When its hot here in AZ I have misters on mine and water pans to wade in as well as a 1/4 frozen watermelon wedge or two to peck at to keep cool.

 

[KrystalRose]

I am new to chickens so I don't know why your poor girl passed, I am sooo sorry by the way for the terrible week you have had. Maybe to relieve some of their stress of heat you could put frozen bocks of ice in their area. I do this for my girls when it is above 95 degrees out. I freeze a large tupperware of ice then pop it out and put in on a tray on the ground so they get to drink ice water and some even like to stand on the ice or in the ice water to cool down. Sometimes for an extra treat I put in some fruit or treats in the ice for them to pick at and it helps provide entertainment to help stress too. Don't know if this will help relieve some stress on your girls or not, hope it helps.

 

[cafarmgirl]

I would suspect it was heat. When it's really hot sometimes just shade is not enough, they really need a fan to keep the air moving around them. In the summer I have a fan in each coop as well as one at floor level in the barn, behind a wire fence, where they can choose to stand right in front of it if they want. A place to get their feet wet helps a lot as well as do misters.

 

[flrn]

I have since placed a canopy tent in front of their coop for further shade. Completely disinfected the coop in case it was something else, and bought 2 fans to place in the coop and run. In addition I've placed a large pan of ice water in the coop but have to change it often. I had a packet of chick electrolyte left over and made a gallon jug and added it to both water sources. They are very quiet and won't travel the yard as they did before.

 

[flrn]

Update: The remaining white leghorn looks sickly. She was laying on the ground, but then did get up and move about the coop, but is not eating. I haven't seen her drink either. I did happen to see her poop though, and it looked gelatinous to me and not normal. The other two rhode island reds are drinking, and pecked at the fruit but they're favorite treat meal worms are just sitting on the ground, they won't even look at them :-( We have the fans running, and there is plenty of ice water in the coop for tonight. The fan, although brand new, seems noisy to me on low speed, I hope this doesn't further stress the girls out.

 

[flrn]

Update: Well, I was really worried that the girls were going to have an issue with the oscillating fan in the coop. I got up this morning, and at 8am they were still not down from the coop. I went outside with dread in my heart, and what do I find? My girls sitting on their roosting bar basking in the breeze of the fan!! They wouldn't even move an inch except to scoot back and forth to catch the breeze lol. they finally got out of bed at 9am, and are moving about the yard and eating. All of them! Not back to normal, but certainly doing much better. Ice water in their trough 4 times a day, and fans on in the run. We installed a mister sprayer, but they want no part of it. We'll have to try again tomorrow. Some clouds though to give us a reprieve. I'm feel so much better. Thank you for your information.

 

[cafarmgirl]

Glad to hear they are enjoying their fan! In case your interested, Amazon sells some very good fans that are heavy duty and built to last in an outdoor environement. I don't have a link but they are made by Lasko,and sit on a triangular tube base that can either sit on the floor or be wall or ceiling mounted. Mine sit on top of my coops and blow down into the coop. They also have 3 different speeds so they can be adjusted depending how hot it is which is kind of nice. I've had mine 4 or 5 years out in the barn and they are still going.

My birds don't like a mist system either so I just make a puddle for them in the shade of the barn when it gets really hot.

This summer when we had the first heat wave I finally got fed up and bought a swamp cooler for my barn. Best purchase I've made in a long time lol, the chickens LOVE it! But they are not as effective if you have high humidity.