110 degrees and counting

[coyotejoe]

At 4:30 yesterday I went to check bunnies and the thermometer in the dog pen/hutch read 110 degrees. :shock: I ran extension cords and set up a fan which soon brought the temp down to 108 but that was the best I could do. When it's that hot I'm not sure circulating the air faster is even a good idea.
I checked the empty outhouse and it was "only" 95 in there so maybe it would be better to move them back into the insulated outhouse. But then again I'm sure two dozen bunnies would raise the temp there also so I'm undecided.
I have cages stacked three high and I'm thinking maybe I'll move the two topmost cages back to the outhouse since it was hottest up near the roof. It's forecast to be even a couple of degrees hotter today. :?

 

[myrkari]

Hot hot hot I don't have to worry too much about heat like that in good old England so I don't have many tips but I'm sure I read people posting here about giving the bunnies bottles of frozen water to lie on/near if they look like they're suffering. Is that possible? Two dozen empty bottles might be a lot to rustle up in a hurry, but some is better than none and you could probably scavenge up extras quite quickly.

I think moving the air around is good no matter what - a breeze is always nice in the heat - but if the motor of whatever you use to move the air heats it up more in there I guess that could be a problem. Can you get a through-draft naturally? Also I guess putting a block of ice in front of the fan would cool the air that is being blown around too, that might give you a couple more degrees relief if you have access to a big cold thing - like an old ice cream tub filled and frozen that you could just refreeze when it melts.

Fingers crossed the weather cools down for you a bit.

 

[Zinnia]

Wow! I'm hoping for some relief in the temp. for you and your buns.

 

[the reluctant farmer]

Joe, try putting a big cake pan of ice in front of the fan and have it blow over the surface. Poor man's air conditioner. You can freeze water right in the cake pan so the ice lasts longer. Can you wet the top of the rabbitry with a hose? It'll help a bit. If the summer shed is out in the sun, you could cut some scrub brush or small scrub trees, and put it around to create artificial shade. That can help drop the temp by at least 10 degrees.

I'd lost a rabbit to heatstroke this past week. i'd moved her to a cage I'd set near my garden when she escaped from her outdoor hutch. The rest of the buns are under two shade trees 10 ft away. While she had a roof and bean vines on the side of her cage (a nice treat, I thought), the difference in temperature turned out to be drastic. I found her recently dead when I got home from work. Everyone else was stretched out in their cages, doing just fine in the 98 degree weather. I was devastated.

 

[katiebear]

In intense heat the air has to be moving..I know Arizona is not very humid like a lot of you folks are dealing with but heat is an unavoidable issue here. Air flow, shade,frozen bottles or floor tiles, even. I use misters but the evaporation rate is much better here. Sometimes just hosing off the roof and ground will bring down temps considerably,albeit temporarily. I hose off my enclosure every half hour to hour depending on the temp and how much shade is covering the enclosure. You might want to bring in the babies, the heat will take them out pretty fast. Mist the adults ears every half hour to keep them cool. put extra water in crocks, it will stay cooler...Just some tips, My heart goes out to you..the hottest we have been so far is 111 with heat index of 115...it will get worse before summer is over.. :x

 

[akane]

The western US is brutal this year. We kept talking about moving to oregon for the improved weather, mainly temps, but it's in the 100s F on the west coast. Where my cousins are at in washington they saw 120F. We started hot but quickly cooled back to barely over 80F. I'll take that the rest of the summer. I've got garden stuff to do and I'm trying to hike with the dogs any day that isn't over 80F.

In low humidity ice is wonderful. In higher humidity it's a little less effective but the big problem I found was all the sweat off the containers made things too wet and I had a cocci outbreak that wiped out all juniors for the summer. If you have a chest freezer you can freeze large containers. Gallon jugs, coolers full, buckets... When the chinchillas are starting to overheat I set the large frozen objects on the metal cages and the cold transfers through the metal and cold sinks so it goes down into the cage and the metal surface they are standing on. A fan will help move it around. When our ac went out last year I managed to make the interior area of the cages about 3-5F cooler than standing a couple feet away and the floors were even cooler than that. Chinchilla people also frequently use granite or ceramic flooring tiles as "chiller" tiles for the chins to lay on and pull some heat away. I learned a lot of potentially rabbit useful chinchilla cooling tricks from the forum since these guys can overheat above 75F and some say shouldn't go above 70F.

 

[TerriG]

We are dealing with early heat too! We don't normally see triple digits this time of year, but we are. We've been changing waters in the heat of the day so that they have fresh cool water, and we've been spraying everyone down. I had 2 litters born right before the heat hit. So far, so good. We are going to try putting come ice in front of the intake fan to see if it helps. Even the moving air is so hot!

 

[coyotejoe]

As an experiment I have moved two cages, those with newest kits, back into the outhouse and I'll put ice cakes in there. It is well insulated so maybe that will help. I also can periodically hose down the roof and outside walls. The dog pen hutch is back under the trees and well shaded but too far from the well to run hose back there, I'd need at least another 100 feet of hose.
It was so hot this little guy's ears melted. Lupin isn't sure what is going on but she's pretty sure something isn't right.

 

[skysthelimit]

All I can say is wow. It's barely 70F here in Ohio, and non stop rain. hope you get some relief soon.

 

[coyotejoe]

Forecast is for a little cooler but still in the 95-100 range. There is a lot of outside work I need to get done but out in the open sun it's hot by 10:00 AM and I just can't get started at 6:00 so it's a very short work day. :lol:

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

ya its actually quite cool here and lots of rain too but last week we had near 90s*F. which I know isn't that bad, I am just not a heat tolerant person I am great with 50-70*F.

 

[coyotejoe]

Well it topped out at 112 degrees and it looks like everybody survived, although greatly distressed.

 

[the reluctant farmer]

Well, on the positive side it appears you have hearty genetics in that herd, so that's good. They've handled cold and heat.

Joe, I can't remember if the summer quarters walls are tarps or some such material, and if they can be pulled up during the day. (You might be doing it already.). The heat makes me more anxious than cold: I feel like I can keep layering on stuff to try to insulate the cages in winter. But you can only strip down so far to be cool, and then that's all you can do...

 

[imajpm]

Ohh so hot We are not quite that bad but I am in that west coast heatwave so no one is used to any sort of heat. Mine are angora, Satins and NZW. It was 102 in the shade here today. I am shocked at how well the woolies are doing. I have mine on the ground now with a 3 inch spacer to keep poop from contacting them. Wetting the ground, ice, fans, ear spraying, a mister meant for me but now they have it :lol: Ears are melting here too.

Two dozen cages is alot of work in this heat. Hope everyone stays okay, bunnies and humans both.

 

[coyotejoe]

Well, on the positive side it appears you have hearty genetics in that herd, so that's good. They've handled cold and heat.

Joe, I can't remember if the summer quarters walls are tarps or some such material, and if they can be pulled up during the day. (You might be doing it already.). The heat makes me more anxious than cold: I feel like I can keep layering on stuff to try to insulate the cages in winter. But you can only strip down so far to be cool, and then that's all you can do...

Yes, except for Bucky the red NZ I brought from Colorado all others are local stock from the same breeder and they have to be tough to survive on his place. :lol:
Summer quarters are a dog pen with 6 foot high chain link walls and a tarp roof which extends about 2 feet down the sides. When it's dead calm as it was the past two days heat does build up under the roof, that is why I moved the top tier of cages back to the outhouse. I kept a frequent check on temps and it does stay a bit cooler in the outhouse so summer quarters was probably just not the great idea I had imagined.
This morning it's overcast and the forecast high is 92 so hopefully the 100+ weather may be over with. It's funny though, I had worried that moving north from Colorado would be lots colder but last winter was the mildest I've ever experienced and yesterday was the hottest, even including two years in Africa. :?

 

[akane]

Heat is causing other problems. My cousins are here waiting to see if they get evac instructions http://www.weather.com/safety/wildfires ... washington

In our world, yesterday starting in the evening I was cold. It was lower 60s and dropping fast but it just seemed so wrong to turn the heat on in summer. I stole some extra blanket from my husband's side of the bed.

 

[imajpm]

Joe did you get any rain this morning? Your not very far from me, I'm in the northern panhandle. We got a bit of rain which delayed the heat a tad, but made it somewhat gross and humid. You seem a bit hotter. I also moved to this area to avoid heat! Failure...We have a few days off from the 100+ thank goodness.

 

[coyotejoe]

Just a few scattered drops, you wouldn't know it unless a drop happen to hit you. But the overcast did help lots, it's only 91 now at 3:45.