# silkie and heat



## Ranch (May 26, 2014)

For the past few days here the summer weather has come in with full force. All summer it has been mild and not usual Kentucky heat. But, now we have it and the chickens are having to adjust quickly. Everybody seems to be fairing well except one. Lavern my larger white silkie. two days ago I noticed her breathing through her mouth a lot. I took extra cold treats out and that seemed to help her cool down. Yesterday she was doing the same but no matter what I did, (fan, cold water running into water bowl continually, wetting all of run and turn the dirt two times to keep the ground cool, a fan with a pan of ice water, plus cold treats), she just wouldn't cool down. So I brought her into the house last night. It took several hours for her breathing to get better. I let her sleep in a laundry basket in my bathroom. By this morning she was good to go. She is not normally my best buddy, Over the past week we have gotten better but now she loves me. LOL. 

I did check her over to make sure that nothing else was causing the issues. But her poo and crop are fine. She doesn't have bugs and eats and drinks just as the others do.

Is there anything else anybody can think of to help with the heat?

The others all seem to be fine I am doing all I can for everyone here. I have a box fan in the loft to circulate the air where my AG's sleep. I have all the barn doors open so it cross breezes too. They love the fan and sleep directly in its blowing path. If I forget to turn it on they all come and get either myself or my hb. The polish and other silkie are doing well too, they are in the same run as Larvern.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Silkies do struggle in the heat. But that also means they are very cold tolerant. 

Put her feet in a pan of water. I bought those aluminium dog pans from Wally World, they're only about two inches deep and a foot across. Several of my birds would go stand in it to cool down. It only takes one to do it and then others will follow.


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## Ranch (May 26, 2014)

robin416 said:


> Silkies do struggle in the heat. But that also means they are very cold tolerant.
> 
> Put her feet in a pan of water. I bought those aluminium dog pans from Wally World, they're only about two inches deep and a foot across. Several of my birds would go stand in it to cool down. It only takes one to do it and then others will follow.


I actually have a couple of those, I will go fill two up. I have already sprayed the run and under the building where they dust bath. I have two holes, I dug out and I fill them with water when I spray. After I am done they all run to the two holes and drink and stand. So the pans are better, not as muddy. . Thanks Robin.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Just another one of those tricks I learned over the years. The nice thing about the pans is that the water doesn't get absorbed. It will get nasty but if all they're doing is standing in it, it really doesn't matter.


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## Ranch (May 26, 2014)

Today was even hotter here. The humidity is staggering. Dovey started having issues by early afternoon. The silkies did much better. They were very unsure of the pans, so I put them in the two holes I have dug out and they just walked over and stood in them as though it was nothing new. So yeah to that. I like this better, because they like to drink the water and this way I can clean the pans when I do refills and refreshes. Plus it stays instead of becoming mud.
I gave extra frozen watermelon and cantoplope reins early today. This helped but it was horrid here and Sunday is suppose to be even worse. I refilled water about every thirty mins during the worst of the day. If everybody can just hang on one or two more days it is suppose to be cooler next week. 
Thanks for the idea and I am sooo glad it worked and helped Laverne. She is too sweet to be that hot. Now if I can get my AG's to take up the practice of standing in water then we might all be awesome again. lol I know this post jumps around but my brain is getting tired.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

We've had heat indexes here of 110 and above, all because of the humidity. 

It takes a little to get them to not be afraid of it but it sounds like yours are taking to it pretty quickly. What you can try next year are misters. You can either get the ones you control or those on timers. The ones on timers are pretty pricey. I set mine up so that I could just turn them on for a few minutes from the house. It did a lot to cool things down.


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