Author Topic: Hot weather and stress on chickens  (Read 13091 times)

Beth C

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Hot weather and stress on chickens
« Reply #15 on: June 10, 2011, 06:20:10 AM »
Quote from: Mike Gilbert


It is currently 55 degrees here this morning.  I had to turn the brooder lights back on.  The forecast is for a high of 72 today and a high of 62 tomorrow with rain.   A-h-h-h.  


...and Mike gets a rasberry, too. Still mid to upper 90\'s, can\'t remember the last time it rained. If we don\'t get some soon I\'ll be buying hay by July.  :o

Paul

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Hot weather and stress on chickens
« Reply #16 on: June 10, 2011, 09:05:09 AM »
I checked with our regional PO on Thursday.  They are still accepting chicks.  We were so far behind on our orders that I turned several away about 6 weeks ago.  Our last hatch only has three orders booked and we can accept a few more.  Otherwise we are caught-up and soon can start again on 2012 chick orders.

We are very fortunate to be only 65 miles North of Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport.  We can send them anywhere in the US within 2 days delivery time.
Paul Smith

WMeredith

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Hot weather and stress on chickens
« Reply #17 on: June 10, 2011, 12:31:23 PM »
Hi Everyone:

I shipped my last two orders on tuesday. It was 97 here.
One went to Minnesota and one went to New York. The Minnesota one caught the cool down, but the new York one followed the heat. Both orders held 30 chicks and all arrived, the moring of the second day,  with no losses. I had no choice but to ship, as I have no more room for chicks and would have had to destroy them if they didn\'t go. I guess I was lucky.

Beth C

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Hot weather and stress on chickens
« Reply #18 on: June 10, 2011, 02:57:04 PM »
Paul: For some reason I was thinking you were further south. How far are you from Weatherford? I spent a summer there (well, actually Peaster) for farrier school - you haven\'t lived \'til you\'ve run a coal forge in this heat! ;)

Jess

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Hot weather and stress on chickens
« Reply #19 on: June 16, 2011, 08:22:42 PM »
evening folks,
as you can see we are still having this heat wave, weather channel says 2 more weeks of it.
Drilled a hole and it is 14 inches before you hit any mosture.
all my grass is dying. I don\'t think I have ever seen it this dry here.
Jess

Beth C

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Hot weather and stress on chickens
« Reply #20 on: June 17, 2011, 10:49:27 AM »
Ditto on the grass. We\'ve had a few days of relief from the heat, but ZERO rain. Even my weeds are dying, and I\'m buying hay in June. (FYI, not having to buy hay is absolutely the only thing I like about summer to begin with... :o )

Mike Gilbert

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Hot weather and stress on chickens
« Reply #21 on: June 17, 2011, 11:08:02 AM »
Quote from: Beth C
Ditto on the grass. We\'ve had a few days of relief from the heat, but ZERO rain. Even my weeds are dying, and I\'m buying hay in June. (FYI, not having to buy hay is absolutely the only thing I like about summer to begin with... :o )


I have hay for sale.  But the shipping is a killer.   First crop is harvested, second crop is growing . . .     There are a few good things about Wisconsin.  And I\'m not talking about the ticks and mosquitos.

Beth C

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Hot weather and stress on chickens
« Reply #22 on: June 17, 2011, 02:04:34 PM »
Mike: Actually most of the hay I buy is trucked in. It\'s hard to get good hay here, and demand greatly exceeds supply, so several farms in the area buy tractor trailer loads & sell their surplus. I keep saying I\'m going to do that, but the thought of unloading a 40ft trailer alone always stops me... ;)

Jess

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Hot weather and stress on chickens
« Reply #23 on: June 23, 2011, 12:47:47 PM »
Hey we got Rain Tuesday and Wednesday and today.
Temp hasn\'t hit 90 for the last 3 days.
So I thank The Master Rain Maker for his blessings.
Jess

Beth C

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Hot weather and stress on chickens
« Reply #24 on: June 24, 2011, 06:07:02 AM »
Like the song says, rain is a good thing! It\'s rained several times here, too, and things are turning green again. Temps have been running low-mid 90\'s, not terrible for this time of year, but we have 3 wildfires that, while not close enough to directly threaten us, are producing a lot of smoke. We got a good rain last night, hope that helps with them. I feel so bad for the poor guys out there fighting them in this heat...

John

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Hot weather and stress on chickens
« Reply #25 on: June 24, 2011, 09:11:08 AM »
Quote
rain is a good thing!

You are right, but hot/warm dry weather followed by a few days of cold rainy/damp weather can cause a lot of stress on the young birds.  I was just telling Mike, yesterday, about some of my experiences with that situation over the years and the results weren\'t pretty.  Keep them dry, not just by keeping them from getting rained on but out of mud and keep the bedding dry.    

Beth C

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Hot weather and stress on chickens
« Reply #26 on: June 24, 2011, 03:30:57 PM »
A local breeder mentioned that too. He told me he raises all of his birds on wire but he has bantams - don\'t see how I could pull that off w/LF.

Speaking of losing birds to stress, has anyone else noticed that pullets handle stress better and/or are hardier? Whenever I lose young birds, I seem to lose about twice as many males as females. Just dumb luck? :)

John

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Hot weather and stress on chickens
« Reply #27 on: June 24, 2011, 03:35:42 PM »
Quote
dumb

So, Beth, are you saying males are dumber than females?  :D :D :D
(please don\'t answer that)

Mike Gilbert

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Hot weather and stress on chickens
« Reply #28 on: June 24, 2011, 05:14:52 PM »
Quote from: Beth C
. . has anyone else noticed that pullets handle stress better and/or are hardier? Whenever I lose young birds, I seem to lose about twice as many males as females. Just dumb luck? :)


Yes, stress no doubt.   By any chance do you raise your pullets with your cockerels?  I do understand how that might happen.

Beth C

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Hot weather and stress on chickens
« Reply #29 on: June 24, 2011, 07:25:12 PM »
Set myself up for that one, didn\'t I? ;)