Two heat exhaustion deaths in a month

[chickpack2024]

I am in SE North Carolina--this is my 2nd summer of raising chickens. Last year I did not have any issues with heat, but the chickens were young, mostly pullets.

This month I lost my (only) two black Australorps. One died because she was broody, and I think I needed to bring her inside or something--she could not handle the heat. The second one was such a shock. She died today. At 12:30 I let them all out to free range--my yard is super shady and there are a lot of shaded water buckets, plenty of holes to dig to get cool, giant bushes to hide under.

We found her at 5pm, in the coop (basically the hottest place she could be--the run is much cooler). She hadn't laid eggs for 3-4 days, rare for her. She was panting so heavily. I brought her in the house, put her feet in some water, but she died maybe 1 minute after my bringing her in. She did some death gasps and died before she got a chance to get cool. It all happened so fast!!

I keep reading australorps are heat tolerant, but now mine are both gone. Her body felt so heavy, hot and fluffy, it's hard for me to believe they're good with heat.

My flock is almost all 7 weeks and under now--2 adult birds who I'm terrified will get heat exhaustion, so I'll just check them a lot--and a bunch of chicks. Hopefully this will be live and learn, I'm just not sure if I can do that much more--I do frozen fruit, but not every day.

 

[Anon112]

I'm so sorry for your losses!

My routine during our heatwave has been:

--Putting frozen water bottles into the waterers every morning
--Putting up a tarp to add more "deep" shade to the run
--Wetting down a section of the run
--Putting out "foot baths" that they can stand in if the want
--Changing out their water for fresher/colder stuff once a day
--Checking on them during the day
--On the hottest days I took a fan out and ran it on low pointing at one section of the run

I don't know---I feel like to a certain extent you sort of get lucky no matter how much you do. Some animals, just like some people, really don't do well with the heat. I've lived without AC for years and years, but it's just a fact that in heat over 90 degrees I start to feel really physically ill.

 

[Cheekychook12]

when my super fluffy chickens get too hot I just dip the entire chicken in cold water or set up a sprinkler

 

[wrathsfarm]

I don't have the heat you southerners do but a couple things I do that may help. Fans.... Alot of fans. Especially facing the hot nest boxes. I put box fans in the windows at night and if any windows are in direct sun that fan is in during the day I turn it to exhaust out. Another fan intake on an opposite wall, window in shade would really help here. I haven't yet this year but I've got frozen water bottles on the ready rack in case it gets super hot here in July and August..... I bury these in the bedding in nest box on one side.
Hope any of this helps. I really don't think it's an Australorp breed issue. Any bird is susceptible to the heat.... And it's hard keeping them cool. One thing I try not to do is shock their system hence the reason I bury the frozen bottles in bedding. I let them adjust to it....

Sorry for your losses.

 

[MROO]

This heat wave is a real kicker! Can you add a fan in the coop? That can help. I freeze jugs of water and set them in the coop and run, changing them out when they thaw. I use the water for my garden before recycling the jugs. Since you free-range, try putting a block of ice in your water tubs (ice cubes melt too quickly). That should help keep the water cooler for your girls. Frozen treats help, too. Mine get frozen melon during really nasty heat. Sometimes it's watermelon, sometimes cantaloupe, just whatever is on the clearance table at our local produce stand. They love it ... rind and all!

 

[LaFleche]

Could you post a picture of your set up?

Your coop may get too hot for them to stay inside until 12.30.

How much ventilation does your coop provide?

In some climates it works well to substitute one or two normal coop walls with hardware cloth during summer.

Where exactly is your coop positioned? Under a tree or structure providing deep shade or rather getting full sun?

Very sorry you lost your hens.

 

[texsuze]

BAs are my favorite, so very sorry you've lost yours. The hen in the nest box could possibly have been egg-bound, especially if it was unusual for her to not have laid in a few days.

Sounds like your setup is good re: shade and cool spots of earth to settle into. If your coop has ample space inside for all, then think about the ventilation and possibly adding more windows (this suggestion without having seen the coop, of course) if needed. As others have said, keeping your coop itself deeply shaded is vital, IMHO, so something else to check.

I keep a supply of re-freezable packs (like you put into coolers, etc) and slip them into little pockets I make using old t-shirts and scrap fabric. I put these frozen pockets on the poop boards behind roosts, or, leaning up against the outside of nest boxes. The fabric pockets keep my hens from coming into direct contact with the ice packs but hopefully add some cooling effect overnight or when laying.

I also take long pieces of old t-shirts or other scrap cloth, wet them, wring them out, and place on top of roosts for about 30 minutes before the girls go into the run for the evening. Take them off before everyone is in and the moisture has a cooling effect on chicken feet once they get on the roosts. Just a few weird things I do mostly to make me feel better about mitigating heat.

 

[SamLockwood]

I had a similar incident with a guinea fowl last year: he was outside and wallowing around in a puddle but was clearly disoriented and suffering heat exhaustion. I picked him up and brought him inside and he went into convusions and was dead in less than a minute.

Perhaps he was already far too gone, or the sudden temperature drop was too much of a shock for him. In either case, if I had to do it over again I might have just moved him somewhere with some shade and given him some cool water to drink.

As others have noted, double check the coop has adequate ventillation. When I built my setup I made the walls and roofs white on the coops. The coloring makes a big difference on how hot those coops get.

I'm not a huge fan of dunking chickens in water: mine absolutely HATE getting wet and I wouldn't want to stress them any further if they were heat-stroked.

However, I've got one of those hose nozzles with a variety of settings and the "mist" setting might be a way to cool off a distressed bird. I've experimented with it a couple times and they don't seem to mind the light drizzle.

 

[chickpack2024]

Thanks to everyone for your replies. I’ve set up a mister near the coop which automatically goes off at 4- and I’m adding some ice bottles to water (this has been the last 5 days).

It’s funny I’m outside watching now it’s not that warm for me at all (evening, 80s) and at least one chicken is panting with wings away from her body. I just gave her a little frozen cantaloupe and turned the mister back on.