# It's sooo HOT and humid in Maryland!



## jstringerrn75 (Oct 24, 2015)

It so dang hot here, all you need to do is open the door and sweat beads roll down your face! I've been keeping a close eye on my girls: ice water, ice cube/veggie treats, fan to keep air moving in hen boxes and coop.

I check on them frequently and of course, today my Sunny Girl decides to go broody. She was suffering in the nesting box, so I took her out and dipped her in a cool water bucket and put her in the "broody breaker" with her very own fan and cold water. She still looked really miserable. She was panting much harder than the rest of the girls, so I ended up bringing her in for a cool down. This is the first time I've ever brought a girl in, but I think it was the right call.

How's everyone else dealing with the heat?


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

We lost one. But our heat wave is over for now and we had a nice rain shower last night.


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## brownchickenfarm (Jul 7, 2016)

Why don't just come down to the south u will really see how hot it is


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

If it gets below 95 degrees into the low 90's with a tiny drop in humidity, me and the girls think it's a cold front!


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Jess, that's why my silkies either have no coop or an open front coop. Right now they're in storage containers turned on their side . No panting. They have all day shade. When it's hot, we just can't let them sit in a hot coop and die. I have another broody in my coop and she has a fan on her and no panting. If not ice in their water, then they all get fresh cold water in the afternoon and a mud puddle. Anything to help.


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## jstringerrn75 (Oct 24, 2015)

I have done most of the things y'all suggested, except the storage containers. I'll do that tomorrow.

I just got back from a movie and my girl laid an egg, lol. She may not be broody, but she was certainly in distress. She is calm and sleeping now. I'll put her back out tomorrow, but we are supposed to be in the mid to upper 90's with heat indexes above 105 until Thursday?


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

jstringerrn75 said:


> I have done most of the things y'all suggested, except the storage containers. I'll do that tomorrow.
> 
> I just got back from a movie and my girl laid an egg, lol. She may not be broody, but she was certainly in distress. She is calm and sleeping now. I'll put her back out tomorrow, but we are supposed to be in the mid to upper 90's with heat indexes above 105 until Thursday?


It's the stress from the heat that may have caused her to have a stuck egg. Be thankful that she wasnt full blown eggbound or worse, egg impacted. She'll be fine but keep an eye on her for the next day or two. I recommend giving her Probios dispersable powder mixed in water for 5 days if she's able to drink it on her own, OR one drop of Poultry Nutri Drench orally via small eyedropper twice a day for 5 days. No more than 5 days as it can cause diarrhea.
Next time; soak her in a container of warm water up to her sides and gently massage her underside front to rear while she's soaking for about 30 minutes. 
The warm water will relax and expand her oviduct, massaging will help the egg move along. You can also use olive oil and lube just inside the vent area to help the egg slip out easier. 
You can do this as many times as you want and with any hen that you suspect might be eggbound or "broody." A broody hen will fluff up and fuss at you, even peck you. Eggbound/impacted hens dont do this.
Us folks that live down south here deal with heat and humidity all the time. Most of the time we dont have a spring or fall. It jumps right into summer and then winter going from one extreme to the other. We MIGHT have 2 or 3 weeks of spring or autumn, but it is short lived. Good luck with your hen and other folks have given you great advice how to keep your hens cooler in the heat and humidity.


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## chickenqueen (Jan 9, 2016)

It's been so hot and humid in Ohio this year.It started in June and it usually don't happen until late July/August and lasts for a couple of weeks.My brother just came up from St.Petersburg and he claims it's hotter here but he was living in the woods,not my un-air conditioned house(I'm suffering along with the chickens LOL-the dog stays in the bedroom where there is an air conditioner).The chickens can get under the pines where it's cooler and they get bottles of ice in their waters and been feeding them frozen corn and other cold treats.The weather people here keep getting the weather reports wrong.They said we were going to get 2" of rain over the whole weekend and there was going to be flooding.It sprinkled for 2 minutes and now they are saying it moved up 50 miles and we aren't getting rain.Idiots!!!This nonsense has been going on all summer.They say it's going to rain and it doesn't.


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

CQ, you must have the same weatherguessers as Patti and I have! Real boneheads...our weatherguessers couldnt forecast yesterdays weather much less todays or tomorrows weather! LOL


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