It has been in the high 90's the last 3 days with the heat index at 105-110. 2 of my turkeys have died in the last 2 day.
I have a mister on thier pen, but yesterday it was so hot I let them run in my yard. Do you think they had heat stroke?
The Heat and Turkeys
Man-o-man, hope you find a fix for that!! I know zero about turkeys. sounds likely, but...
i put the mister in the tree, and hose them down too.
Is their pen in the sun? If it is i would say heat stroke and even pens in shade if it gets hot enough they can stroke out in those too.
It's been well over 100 here and i will have to turn on my sprinkler today and mine are in the shade.
I lost a rabbit to the heat 4 years ago and it has really stayed with me to keep them cool.
If it's possible i would let them out they will find shade and if you can wet the ground where they lay that helps to keep them cool.
In the south we not only have to deal with the heat it's also the humidity that you can feel when you go outside.
I tend to notice the air seems to feel thick and heavy at certain times of the day.
Just my opinion but i think this contributes to the feel of the heat and intensifies it to some degree.
I have noticed before i turn on my sprinkler the animals seem to be haveing a hard time breathing but as soon as the sprinkler is on a few seconds their breathing improves.
My grandmother use to say the air was "suffocating"
Hope this help Jordan Just try and do what you can to keep them cool.
thanks harmony. half of their outside pen is in the shade. the other half has shade netting. right now they are in my back yard running loose, and i put the mister in the tree and have it on for them. i noticed yesterday thier breathing was labored
Good they should do just fine :o)
I've been saving soda and laundry detergent bottles, filling them with water, and freezing them overnight. I put them under the coop in the morning and leave for work. I find my chickens sitting next to the melting ice bottles when I get home. I don't know how many turkeys you have, but the ice bottles seem to be appreciated by the chickens. Or maybe they are just picking off landing insect. I just throw the bottles back in the freezer at night.
Our dog likes this in her kennel too.
Its the only thought that came to mind. Its in the high nineties here and I wish I were sitting on a frozen water jug right now!
Great idea, that!!
Thats what rabbit breeders do for their rabbits they freeze 3 liter soda bottles full of water and put them in the cages.
The rabbits lay up against them to stay cool as hot as it gets here frozen bottles don't last very long.
I turned on my sprinkler this afternoon it was over 100 here today and expected to be hotter tomorrow i may have to bring my baby bunny's inside.
so sorry Jordan yes it is the heat. In the hottest part of the day they need to be lightly sprinkled for as long as you can a few times. I lost 4 of my Mandarin ducks the first summer I had them until my friend said she lost some chickens to the heat and I figured out what was going on. Has been 95 , no clouds, no breeze, and 80% humidity. Heat index of 105 to 115 here too. I almost passed out in the cage a couple of days ago. I started bringing Gatorade with me. I head out there about 1 p.m. drain all their pools and refill them,& spray the ducks. They go nuts flying from pool to pool in the cold water. I lost my new Chiloe Widgeon male and none of the females eggs hatched ;-( Just threw out Ringed Teal and Mandarin Duck eggs(30) yesterday since my new incubator broke. They started laying and then it got to hot so never started sitting them. My geese are staying in the pond almost constantly or up by the house in the shade. I set them up a pool by the house in the shade
Well that is right in line with a question I wanted to ask.
I built what I thought would be a chicken tractor, it is 8 feet long and 3 1/2 feet wide, and 3 feet high. One end is boxed in for them to sleep in, so it has plywood on the top, bottom and sides, the other 6 feet is all hardware cloth.
This summer I bought a tarp to go over the top of it for shade. This tarp is too big and hangs all the way down on both sides. I was wondering, will it be cooler to have the entire thing practically covered up like that? Or half shade and half open, or what? Top and west side covered with the tarp perhaps? I was thinking if the entire thing is covered in this tarp, it might hold the heat in, which is not what I want.
Any thoughts? I'm concerned about it. There's 3 silkie roosters in there.
They are not at my home, they are out of the city limits. I cannot go out in the sun myself, so I can't check up on them during the day in the summer. I've been diagnosed with lupus and sun makes me sick. I go out there at night to feed and water them. This is the first summer they've been there.
I also have an option of making them another pen inside a horse shed. Would that be cooler?
All help appreciated.
thanks for all the help. i didn't lose any turkeys yesterday. i did notice when they weren't under the mister they were under the shed in the cool dirt.
LFJ, i really don't know the answer to your question,but, i would think a tarp all the way down the sides of the pen would prevent air from circulating and making it hotter. hopefully someone with more knowledge will come along and help you
LFJ you are right about the tarp holding heat i would try and only cover the top and leave the sides open for ventilation.
If your still worried do the frozen soda bottle thing they will lay next to it keeping themselves cool
Jordan Thats great about your Turkeys {:~)
Donna B i Have 2 Mandarin females and i don't like them mine act looney and crash into the wire when they see me.
I had a trio but the male escaped when i open the door couple weeks back i believe he had it planned.
Are yours tame i bought mine from a guy who didn't know how to care for them he fed them mixed grains.
They will have to go I just can't handle their overwhelming fear of humans.
here are some of my turkeys being naughty
how long have you had the Mandies Harmony? Mine tolerate me good and are pretty sociable unless I have a net in my hands when catching the babies to get rid of at 3 months old lol. even when I first got them they were fine. The lady warned me about the red colored clothes Maybe the guy never spent any time with them. I know they do not like the color red or bright Hawiian prints. They get really upset. Mine have never tried to escape. I have other exotic ducks as well Ringed Teal trio, Silver Male & regular female Fulvous Whistling Duck, European Shelduck, Chiloe Widgeon. I gave away my Wood Ducks. They are very unsociable and the female would dump her eggs in the Mandies boxes and not sit her own nest. I feed mine Mazuri Waterfowl food mixed with some grit, sunflower seed chips and finch seed. When in season I give them Blueberries & Elderberries. In winter I give them rye grass too my DH plants for me to feed them
very cute Jordan lol. My geese have all my crosocomia laying flat in the bed. They get there and lay around to watch me through the window at my desk
the turkeys have dug up all my glads. i plant rye grass to for winter feeding, along with collards
I have had them for 2 months max and they have not calmed done one bit.
I have Call Ducks they won't sit in my lap but they tolerate my presence in their pen and call to me when they see me.
Hhhhmmmm i was told on another site they were all that way "skitish" and not sociable at all.
maybe if you spend some time in the cage and talk to them while cleaning it or sit near the cage. My cage is down by my pond (until my new one gets finished up by the house) and I sit down there in the evenings and watch the wildlife and talk to the ducks and play with my geese
Such a pretty picture Jordan. What a lovely place you have.
I read a little more about chickens and the heat and came to the same conclusion, they need air circulation. They have no sweat glands, but panting helps them cool themselves.
Thank you for posting this thread, this had been on my mind and it really helped me. I'm going to watch the weather and when there are extremely hot days I'll go with frozen gallon water containers. That's the plan at least.
Jordan (off Topic) I was looking at the pic and noticed your cone flowers and cannas are short did you just plant those this year.
The reason i ask is my garden has always been beautiful my cone flowers generally grow to almost 3 ft tall this year with the over abundance of rain we had they are short,thin and the flowers are very small.
My cannas that have been in my garden for years are always a show stopper this year they are less than a foot tall and blooming.
My Zinnia seeds i planted are maybe foot and a half and blooming and these are supposed to be the big variety.
Theres alot more thats just not right in my garden this year.
Have you had anything different about your garden??
harmony, everything seems to be shorter this year. my zinnias aren't even a foot tall. i think it is all the rain. we have gotton 28.5 inches since jan.
OMG I'm so glad you answered me i have been telling my DH all spring and summer something was just wrong.
Even our grass isn't doing as good as it should i think it was all the rain too.
Sorry to be off topic but i just had to ask i love my garden and it makes me sad the condition it is in.
Wish you could share some of your rain. Things are brown and crispy around here.
wish i could send it to you. it rained so much it washed the color out of my daylillies