Author Topic: Hot weather and stress on chickens  (Read 13097 times)

Paul

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Hot weather and stress on chickens
« Reply #30 on: June 30, 2011, 10:28:40 AM »
  Sorry I’ve been so slow to respond.  We are in
Gainesville, TX.-about 90 miles from Weatherford.
 
  We did manage to ship the last five boxes without any losses even though it was in the upper 90’s.  
All orders were filled and we still managed to keep 228 head (63 lavender splits) to continue breeding and showing some.
 
  We’ve only  had a sprinkle  of rain.  The corn crop was a 90% loss.  Most of the other vegetables have done poorly.  Hay is in short supply and high demand.
 
  We are trying to keep about 50 hills of watermelons alive.  They will be a big help to feed the chickens.
 
  Last year the chickens soon learned to come running when they saw me carrying a watermelon.  They would rather have it than the feed in their feeders.
Paul Smith

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Hot weather and stress on chickens
« Reply #31 on: July 01, 2011, 04:20:11 PM »
I\'m sorry that some are experiencing drought, locally the crop losses are due to flooding.

We aren\'t having the high temperatures here, today being only the 2nd one this month breaking into the 90s. However our high humidity is creating both stressful and dangerous conditions as temperatures approach 90 or above.

I feed crumbles converted to wet mash in this weather. Those birds with access to dry crumbles in feeders and wet mash in pans always eat the mash first. The waterers do not have to be refilled as often when they\'re fed wet mash, and growth rates are improoved over the birds not offered wet feed.  

Beth C

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Hot weather and stress on chickens
« Reply #32 on: July 04, 2011, 07:05:49 AM »
Paul: So you guys are way up north. For some reason I was was thinking you were central.

Steve: What a great idea! I\'ve done that with horses for years but it never even crossed my mind to do it with the birds.

Hate that you guys are taking such a hit. Things have actually leveled out here, we\'ve gotten enough rain to perk things up, temps in the 90\'s but that\'s pretty normal - way cooler than last year. Only concern at the moment is the smoke from the wildfires. Mike spent the night stuck in the Charlotte airport last week because the plane got to Albert J. Ellis & couldn\'t land, had to fly back to Charlotte. Fortunately for him and the junior marines he adopted in the airport he\'d stocked up on snacks for the trip - pop-tarts anyone?  ;)