Had the worst week with my flock thanks to a heat wave

Last Tuesday it hit 103 here in Phoenix and I came home to find three of my hens panting like crazy in the run. I rushed to set up a misting fan I had laying around from my HVAC work and threw some frozen water bottles in their water. One of them ended up with egg binding from the stress and I had to do a warm bath soak on Wednesday night. Has anyone else dealt with heat related issues like this, what do you do to keep your girls cool when it spikes?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_anna8d ago

Egg binding from heat stress is rough... that warm bath trick saved one of mine last summer too. I freeze old milk jugs full of water and swap them out in their coop every morning when it gets bad. Shade cloth over the run helped more than I expected for blocking the worst of that afternoon sun.

grantthomas7d ago

Man that's a solid idea with the frozen milk jugs. I switched to putting frozen water bottles in their waterers last year and it made a big difference in how much they were drinking during the really hot stretches. The shade cloth thing surprised me too, I just used an old bedsheet draped over part of the run and the girls would crowd under it every afternoon like it was a little oasis. Egg binding is scary to watch, glad that warm bath worked out for you.