Has anyone encountered such a disaster? Yesterday morning we went to let the chickens out of the pen to roam the yard like usual and 4 hens and 1 rooster were dead! I have no idea why. I know it has been hot but they have access to shade and we have been putting ice blocks in the water so I know they have had cool water. This was at about 8 in the morning. I only have 3 surviving hens and 3 chicks, 2 that are roosters and one chick too young to tell what it will be. I was raised with chickens my whole life and I cannot remember anything like this with the exception of a weasel attack at my parents but that was obvious how they had died. Mine there is no marks or injuries noticeable and they were in full rigor by 8:30 AM which lease me to believe this happened several hours earlier. Does anyone have any ideas?
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Forgot to add one more thing that I do....after the girls go into roost, I bring in the lantern for an hour so it lights up the coop and they will come down to eat and drink. I really don't know much about chickens but when I first saw them pant like this in the evening and couldn't get them to drink, I panicked. I hope I do not "disturb" their natural behavior by doing this, but it helps me sleep at night :) Anyone know if I'm doing more harm than good?
I'm so sorry to hear about your birds. With the nights not cooling down much mine have seemed pretty miserable also. At night I put frozen 2 liter bottles in their coop that hang from the ceiling and rest on the roost bars. Last night before I went to bed I put 2 frozen gallon milk jugs in front of the fan that points into the coop and I got a four degree drop in 15 minutes(We have one of those Oregon Scientific remote thermometers that you can read from inside the house) I was pleasantly surprised with the results :) During the day they have misters and a wading pool. My vines are taking longer than I hoped :( I hope we make it through the heat without any loses. Sorry again.
I have one of those portable mister strips inside the chicken house which is half enclosed and half open, well ventilated. On the couple of days where I forgot to turn them on, the hens were panting, and laying down, looking pretty miserable.
It gets kinda funky in there with adding the water to the straw/bedding/poop, but I turn the misters off in the evening, and move them around to allow it to dry out.
I also have a shallow tub to catch where one of the misters drip, they love to stand in there.
Home Depot has the portable sets with clips that are pretty easy to install... Our chicken house is next to, but not really shaded by, a Chilean Mesquite. I have 2 strips of misters up in that for the horse, and it's surprisingly comfortable under it.
Sad time for you. You mention putting ice in the water. Do they have a wading pool or a water tub big enough to stand in? The heat is intense right now and as Jeffrey says putting a fan in can help, but generally if they can get their 'lizard-like' legs wet they tend to handle the heat better. They will freely walk around in 2-4 inches of water, anything deeper may discourage them. Hope that helps with the rest of your flock.
It's our brutal heat. It's especially dangerous when the night temps just aren't low enough to give their bodies a chance to recover.
Make sure they have an open air coop and that it's not like an oven in there. If the coop is by a block wall, that could be radiating even more heat into the coop or shaded area. You said they have access to shade. Make sure the entire coop is shaded all day long and a breeze can get through both coop and run. Maybe by next summer you can have beautiful vigorous vines covering the coop to create a microclimate haven. The hens will keep it trim at the bottom but the rest will grow nicely. In addition to blocks of ice in the water, I keep a mister on all summer for the birds just to keep them alive. Occasionally I will have to bring a bird indoors for a while if it's looking particularly stressed.
Similar thing happened to us a few weeks ago. Two hens died in less than 24 hrs. It was the heat. If it were a predator, you'd see damage to the birds in some way. Is the roosting area enclosed or is it open-air? Chickens don't need cool as much as they need ventilation. Try putting a fan in the coop and make sure you have plenty of ventilation holes cut.
Similar thing happened to us a few weeks ago. Two hens died in less than 24 hrs. It was the heat. If it were a predator, you'd see damage to the birds in some way. Is the roosting area enclosed or is it open-air? Chickens don't need cool as much as they need ventilation. Try putting a fan in the coop and make sure you have plenty of ventilation holes cut.
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I have one of those portable mister strips inside the chicken house which is half enclosed and half open, well ventilated. On the couple of days where I forgot to turn them on, the hens were panting, and laying down, looking pretty miserable.
It gets kinda funky in there with adding the water to the straw/bedding/poop, but I turn the misters off in the evening, and move them around to allow it to dry out.
I also have a shallow tub to catch where one of the misters drip, they love to stand in there.
Home Depot has the portable sets with clips that are pretty easy to install... Our chicken house is next to, but not really shaded by, a Chilean Mesquite. I have 2 strips of misters up in that for the horse, and it's surprisingly comfortable under it.
Susan
Catherine
Make sure they have an open air coop and that it's not like an oven in there. If the coop is by a block wall, that could be radiating even more heat into the coop or shaded area. You said they have access to shade. Make sure the entire coop is shaded all day long and a breeze can get through both coop and run. Maybe by next summer you can have beautiful vigorous vines covering the coop to create a microclimate haven. The hens will keep it trim at the bottom but the rest will grow nicely. In addition to blocks of ice in the water, I keep a mister on all summer for the birds just to keep them alive. Occasionally I will have to bring a bird indoors for a while if it's looking particularly stressed.
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