Shade for chickens

  

I really hope we are ready for tomorrow's extreme heat ...  We have prepared as much as we could to keep the chickens safe; they are the only ones vulnerable, everyone else (dogs, cat, people) can stay in the nice cool air-conditioned rooms inside.

Problem is we have a couple of hours around the middle of the day when there is really hardly any shade anywhere in the backyard.

It's going to be around 43ºC (109ºF)! tomorrow ...

On the weekend, after searching through numerous forums and chook sites to find good solutions, we have decided on a few things.

First, we decided to install some heat reflecting cover over the chooks 'day house' which is inside the north side boundary fence.  We were planning to use something like the windscreen shades with that silvery coating, except we needed a whole big sheet; about 2m by 3m.

Couldn't find any in the camping shops or hardware.

But, at Bunnings, at the building insulation isle we found a kind of silver coated sheeting called SilverWrap, 1.30m wide and almost 30m long.  For about $50.

It looked just the thing we needed.  We bought some double sided tape for fixing it to the fence.

At home we laid it out and cut two pieces each 3.5m in length.

Laying out the SilverWrap

Two pieces are cut off

Long edges are overlapped and fixed together with double sided tape (it actually came from my sewing box and was used to fix clothing)

Cut edge tidied up

Fixed it to top of fence with industrial double sided tape

The bottom is simply secured on the ground with bricks

The sheet covers the day house with plenty of overhang at each end. There is enough room for the 4 chooks we think if they are stuck there for the day.

The chickens seem to like their new improved day house.  It must be much cooler than before.

some other things we can do:

• putting large blocks of ice in their water
• watering frequently around them to wet the ground
• put water in trays as wading pools although my chooks don't seem to like this
• cold watermelon or cottage cheese (they love this!)
• putting frozen water bottles around their house so they can sit near them
• if humidity is low, dip them in a bucket of cool (not icy!) water for about half a minute max.  Don't do it when it's humid!! They can get sick!

As a last resort if nothing will seem to work I will bring them inside in the laundry.

But the best would be - and I've made a mental note of this in case we ever move - to have the chook run and house under the shade of decidious trees (they breath a lot and cool the air more) and other plants, maybe even in two layers if possible.

Update on sick chicken

Chooky is recovering well, she is back at the top of the pecking order it seems.

eating watermelon in the heat

Her noisy breathing persisted till day four on the antibiotics.  She picked up her appetite on day two and started laying again on day three! 

We continue to give her the medication once a day, as instructed, until day 21.  That’s a lot of medication, just as well they get some fresh whey or sour milk every day.  Plus, we give her the tablet mashed up in a bit of water and manuka honey.  Yum!  (pity, she doesn’t think so…)

Her eggs have great shells which she didn’t have prior to becoming sick.  I think I read somewhere that honey contained calcium as well.  I’m not sure if it’s true and I’m too busy at the moment to look it up.

Sick chicken

Having a sick chicken I believe is one of the most frustrating things in life.  For various reasons it’s usually up to the owner to deal with it, and if the owner is not very experienced …

A few days ago, when we had that horrible, close to 40 degrees heat (104F!), one of my chickens was very sick.

When I let them out in the morning, she didn’t rush out with the other three as she usually does.  She was still up on the perch and was looking back at me.  Her beak was open.  And then, I heard a funny rattly noise.  My heart squeezed when I realised it was coming from her. 

“What happened to you??” I asked, because she was perfectly alright the day and night before, in fact she was the boss of the four of them lately.  She continued to look at me somewhat strangely and breathing with that noise, “See, I am not okay, do something”.  I watched her a little longer, thoughts rushing in my head about what could be wrong with her and what I should do.

At the end I decided to wait maybe half an hour and see what happens. 

When a little later I checked on her, she was outside, just standing around, not eating and not drinking.  And the rattly noise and open mouth was constant.

I was searching on the internet, reading forums and websites frantically, trying to figure out what was wrong with her.  At the end I decided the best would be to get some antibiotic medication. 

I brought her inside, as the temperature was getting quite high by then, and put her in a box covered with a wire drawer.  Hoping that the dogs won't bother her, I placed the box under the dining chair.  She had some water in a small bowl.  My husband, L. went to the vet hospital to get some antibiotics.  

I made a video of her noisy breathing, hopefully it plays okay:

One of my dogs, Lily - who was watching all the happenings, and probably picked up on the vibes (she is VERY smart!) - decided that chooky needed protection, and positioned herself next to the box.  She remained there for the next several hours, growling at the other dog, Tina or the cat, Cica, when either of them approached the box closer than 2 metres.  Isn’t she a great friend.  To the chooks, that is.

Lily and her protege

L. came back with no medication; apparently they are not to give it like that, without examining the animal.  Bad news.  Then we rang our vet, whom I had no idea understood and knew chickens, in fact he likes them and he has some, too!   First good news of the day, we should’ve started there! 

We took chooky and half an hour later emerged with a diagnosis (chronic respiratory disease), antibiotics and instructions for the next 21 days. 

Plus, now I know who to turn to when we have any problems with our chickens.   What a relief!