Hot weather water scare!

[RonP]

We have been having hot humid temps in the 90's all this week.
Uncomfortably hot for chickens.

I came home yesterday evening around 8pm to see their water container overturned in their run.
No water left, my worst nightmare. Their container was empty and dry!
I felt sick...

They all seemed ok.
I immediately refilled the container fully anticipating a mad chicken rush.

To my surprise, they seemed disinterested...more interested in if I came bearing treats..

I went into the coop and checked their winter waterer, set up in a corner on my homemade cookie tin heater. It is virtually ignored when water is not frozen in the run.

It was half empty...

Never underestimate the value of redundancy on life supporting measures when it comes to chickens...

Food
Secured Shelter
Water...

No such thing as overkill.

 

[WhiteLeghorn2]

@RonP
Glad your chickens are ok! I would've felt the same way. It was hot here the other day too. On Monday night I went to check on them and saw that there water was low. At 10am on Tuesday I went out to fill it up, and saw that the water was empty! I filled it up immediately and they all acted as if they didn't have water for days. They gulped down a lot of it haha. Luckily they were all fine, as they only went a few hours without it. Definitely always a good idea to check their water every day and refill it.

 

[earlybird10842]

Wow, sounds like a lose call. I would set up another waterer, or just place a bucket of water they can reach in their run. If it is temporary, it doesn't have to be an actual waterer

 

[Rani]

Close call!!!

 

[jetdog]

We have been having hot humid temps in the 90's all this week.
Uncomfortably hot for chickens.

I came home yesterday evening around 8pm to see their water container overturned in their run.
No water left, my worst nightmare. Their container was empty and dry!
I felt sick...

They all seemed ok.
I immediately refilled the container fully anticipating a mad chicken rush.

To my surprise, they seemed disinterested...more interested in if I came bearing treats..

I went into the coop and checked their winter waterer, set up in a corner on my homemade cookie tin heater. It is virtually ignored when water is not frozen in the run.

It was half empty...

Never underestimate the value of redundancy on life supporting measures when it comes to chickens...

Food
Secured Shelter
Water...

No such thing as overkill.

After a scare like that I would find a piece of chain and hang it or have the chain just long enough for the waterer to sit on the ground with the security of the chain so it can't tip over.

 

[RomeoKat]

We have a lot of hot days here in south-central Virginia, too. I'm planning on starting my flock next spring, but in preparation for hot weather, I was considering getting some watercoolers and modifying them by removing their spigots and adding a nipple waterer attachment. I read on one of the information articles that chickens won't drink if their water is too hot, and using the coolers I could add ice to the water and keep it cool for a long time. I think a heavy water cooler would be very reluctant to tip over...

Ron, have you considered modifying your system so that the waterer hangs from a post or something? From what I've been reading, that can work nicely if you don't want to go to the nipple system.

At any rate, I am so glad your girls had that back-up; I'm going to mention this to my husband so that his design for our coop will include that redundancy!

[edit: which is, of course, what jetdog just suggested *facepalm*]

 

[lularat]

That would have really scared me too. My girls have knocked over their waterer too, so now I have two, both secured. The heat has been terrible here this week and the girls have drank a lot of water. My girls love cool water. I have a five gallon cooler with nipples and put a frozen 2 liter bottle of frozen water in the cooler daily. I freeze 20 oz. bottles of water for the smaller 1 gallon waterer.

 

[RonP]

My outdoor run water container is just a 5 inch cut off the bottom of a 5 gallon water bottle, sitting elevated on a board.

Daily now, I dump 2 gallons or so into it from outside the run, replacing the 2 inches missing, and refreshing the balance.

They drink a lot more in the warmer weather, this can last 2 or 3 days in cooler temperatures.

Someone probably decided to take a bath, or more likely was chased into it for it to fall off the board.

First time for everything, glad they used the second waterer.

Their "winter" waterer is in the coop corner sitting on a cookie tin heater, refreshed every weekend as it is seldom used now.

 

[Chris09]

The other thing you might keep in mind is the amount of protein your feeding.
If I remember right I believe that you posted a time or two that your feeding a 28% protein feed, well feeding that high of protein on hot days can lead to heat stress/stroke in poultry. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for feeding a good high protein feed but when the temps get above 85 degrees I keep a good eye on the birds and if I see that they have one or all of these signs (water intake is high, there lazy, stressed over panting etc). I will drop there protein down to about 18 to 20 percent.

 

[RonP]

The other thing you might keep in mind is the amount of protein your feeding.
If I remember right I believe that you posted a time or two that your feeding a 28% protein feed, well feeding that high of protein on hot days can lead to heat stress/stroke in poultry. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for feeding a good high protein feed but when the temps get above 85 degrees I keep a good eye on the birds and if I see that they have one or all of these signs (water intake is high, there lazy, stressed over panting etc). I will drop there protein down to about 18 to 20 percent.

Great information.

My flock was / is eating a lot of low protein free "treats".

Egg production was down, gave them dog food my dog was allergic to, egg production shot up.

I now freechoice the 28% all flock. Egg production is up.

The higher protein feed and oyster shell is there if they want it, but not by any means the only feed available.

They seem to know what they need, all are very healthy, some near 5 years old and still laying an egg or two a week.