This chick has had it!
How is everyone else?
tf
Beating the heat...
Lovely, warm (low 80's) and breezy! Of course we are in a serious drought.....
hot hot hot in the 90's
And hot, hot, here too. And humid. I thought I was in a sauna this morning when I went outside. And because we had to go get feed today, it was even worse. Of course we do have air in the car, so when we were traveling, it was okay. But then we had to get out.
AND IT'S ONLY JUNE!!!
GG
HOT HOT HOT and oh yes, did I say H O T
And humid and yuck!
We've hit 92 the last three days :-( Normally we don't climb that high except for a week or two in August. Very humid too. My poor Cayuga Ducks (all black) are really panting hard even though they're spending most of the day in their pool.
MollyD
Anything we can do to help our chickens? We have put a fan in their house and keep plenty of water. Other suggestions? I am afraid these chickens have become too much a part of my life. It is too hot here. 99 degrees today and 102 tomorrow. humidity unbearable. Geeze
90s, humid, little rain here and there. Chickens pen and house is in the shade, so although they are warm, they're not blazing. I won't be complaining about the heat though because it helped get rid of those nasty bugs! (At least not any time soon) : )
here is what we did... i mean what "I" did... [we had a dry heat!]
no fans. good ventialtion. but the winds were gusting over 30 MPH, so it was hot even in the shade. i changed their water about 4 times that day to keep it cool [lots of waterers!], had two hoses going on the ground around the pens, making a moat, sprayed down the cinderblock walls of the henhouse, and now and then sprayed a chicken or the ground in their pen. gave them cool water in pans to stand in, etc...
the futon pens have a great shade cloth on them. i didn't lose a single chicken to the heat, but not for luck, for getting hot and sick myself! the winds are cooler today, so they are out foraging instead of standing around panting. but it will be in the mid to upper nineties all week. we are going to buy more tarpaulins for the other pens...
someone else said:
"had a fan hanging on a post ,pointed down to blow onto a big galvenized tub of water that did wonders until i got the swamp cooler."
and soon:
when DH gets the big fan in their roof, i may put a big tub under it! he has one he salvaged from a radiator heater in a trailer house, still works.. just gonna be a pain to install, but wish it was already done!
that'll be another thread LOL
What's a swamp cooler?
another 90's day here. I noticed all the animals today were sleeping late cause it was so cool this morning it felt real good.
MollyD
so hot here ya can fry an egg or chicken on the driveway
It's burning up here too! We tried to get our little cornish 2 months before now, but this was the soonest we could get them. I think we are most worried about them. They are in a brooder house that my DH built and the windows are across from each other, so when we catch some wind, the air blows right through them cooling everyone off. We'll probably have to swipe a fan from the house for them, when the wind dies down. We also have a fan going in the rooster pen to keep them cool. A swamp fan cooling system sounds pretty good.....do you just put cold water in the tub, or would you put chunks of ice in there too?
if it was blowing on me i would want chunks of ice! BIG chunks! sdtill burning up here. if only the sun would take a avacation...
It's 96 here and hot. We have a fan in chic pen and keep cool water.
Ducks have kiddy pool that is changed daily and in the shade, they stay in it most of the time .
patch.... swamp cooler circulates water on a vertical screen(?) and has a large fan blowing across it to circulate moist air, it works I have a large one that was used to cool football players at ganes
Am I the only one with ducks and geese that dig up dirt and put it in their pool? Mine turn it into a mud bath and seem to enjoy wallowing in it.
MollyD
well, this morning it was about the same as last night, 86, now the breeze is gone, but everyone has fresh cool water and as much shade as possible. so i am inside during hte hottest part of the day, also known as baby's nap time!
Currently in Amarillo
92F (Feels like 91F) Sunrise: 06:32
Sunset: 21:00
Humidity: 28%
Visibility: 10.0 m
Partly Cloudy
Wind: VRB7gusting to 16 mph
Barometer: 29.83
MollyD, our ponds are above ground kiddie pools. but they get it as dirty as possible. we keep them in the shade of the evergeren trees, dump itout, i waters and fertilizers. of course they don't like the clean water and muck it up right away, but i don't think they are using mud LOL. our ground is too hard... DH just came in for a break from digging ONE tree hole...
yesterday Peter left hte hose on, and the road puddle turned to a mini lake, they loved it!
tf
forgot to mention we'll hit triple digits again by Wednesday.... ;-(
tf mine are digging holes around the pool with their bills and pulling the dirt into the pool. I'm not sure what they are doing when they do this.
Our ground is getting hard and dry too. Every post hole is taking longer than the last one to get done and of course this is the year I have many of them to dig. I'm re-using some wooden ones from where we removed a fence. Happily they'll be used up and then I can justify buying metal T-post which are way easier to drive in.
MollyD
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the sun and the heat!!!!
If anyone here has lived in Michigan from November to April, you'll know why. ....Whenever anyone mentions the heat to me my reply is always, "All I know is that it's NOT February, and there's no snow outside!!" Yahoooooo! I LOVE summer time!! :)
Glenda, I was born and raised here. Born in Highland Park General, raised in Detroit, moved April 9, 1999 here. Can't stand the heat. That's the reason we are not snowbirds.
Of course this last winter was a bad one for ice, not snow so much. If it would stay around 68 degrees all summer I would be happy. But, at least it isn't like the south is right now. Or the east coast, either.
GG
Currently in Amarillo
59F (Feels like 54F) Sunrise: 06:32
Sunset: 21:00
Humidity: 88%
Visibility: 1.25 m
Rain and Sleet
Wind: WSW16gusting to 36 mph
Barometer: 29.79
Sudnay:
Hi 80 F
Lo 57 F With a cool front in the neighborhood.....showers and thunderstorms are likely tonight into tomorrow morning across the Central and Eastern Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles. The main threat with these storms will be high winds, hail, heavy downpours, and cloud to ground lightning. Pleasant weather moves in tomorrow with highs around 80.
this is nice, i should be sleeping...
Last time I looked at the thermometer today it said 96. I don't want to look at it again. We're suppose to get a break in the weather with a cold front dropping down from Canada. Oh most welcomes cold front!!!
MollyD
How many of you Texans remember the Summer of 1984? Temps of over 100 degrees for 100days in a row.
We pulled kids out of 4H horse programs because it was to hard on horses.
Robert
I had to put a fan on my chics, then light at night .Temp change is about 30 degrees some days. We are having evening storms that help with heat .Better than the wild fires we were getting.
I was thinking today and wondering if chickens like to swim, so of course I looked it up and the web says.. they cool by dusting.. so I was thinking maybe I should devise a sandbox of sorts.. then I remembered.. when we moved here 6+ years ago right in the area we have the chickens free ranging in the day there was a sand pile for a child that use to live here.. it was so deep I never dug it and put new soil there.. so I went over and used my toothed (new word) hoe.. removed the top weeds/grass and low and behold... a beautiful sand box for my birds... I fluffed all that sand up and left the tillage along the sides ( dessert while in the jacuzzi you know) and called them for a snak.. (they answer to a high pitched "chick..chick..chick-fil-leaaaaay") and they all came running... and before you knew it.. they were taking turns "swimming" and the others were munching on newly found worms and those tender greens I served.
Do you think in my next life I will be waited on hand & foot by chickens?
they poromised us a cool front today. sunset yesterday was 100. still 98 here today at 8:30 PM...
yep, i was one of those kids in 4-H at the time... i remember it well!
soembody pass the ice cream & watermelon & strawbery milkshake made from frozen berries and resh raw goat's milk... burgers from the grill served up now. can't eat before sunset, too dern hot... gonna put on som epounds i guess...
fran, i think that is why they have animals in heaven, to return the favors!
i had a chick try to swim, twice! we named her Ester Willaims...
tf, I think goats are next on my list... but I have to get the chicken this perfected first... I can't be like Molly and do it all at once.. but I did buy a bunch of goat products last month for the family as a test... we loved everything from the butter to the soaps!
But yes.. it is still hot~!
don't wait too long to get goats!
why... are they on the endangered species or will I be missing much and kick myself?
consider just the price of milk...
ahh ok, thats what I was thinking... that and dh use to be allergic to active ingred. in tylenoyl.. acedamediphine ??? but now it seems we are adding new things every day.. so I have been changing eating and laundry and soaps.. all to basics.. my adult kids and friends think I am acting like the world is coming to an end, that or I am going 100% green, but really it all started so I didn't have to work outside the home... and I have tripled my workload, but having a blast at it and I go to bed at night with a really satisfying tired!
;-) you need La Manchas!
I was thinking that or nubians for the fat content.. I hear it is not much...
what ia not much?
sorry, fat content in all goats milk is not a lot.. and harder to get to... I do not say this with a brick wall in place.. just what I have recently read.. I find it disturbing as I want to use fats for many projects.
frans530 hope you've got some good pasture there. When I was reading about goats everything seem to indicate that just being able to browse on shrubs and trees was enough but reality is it's not. They need to graze too! Tall grass is what they prefer.
You can get two goats for starters. Sell the kids off for meat or as bottle babies. That leaves you all the milk and no extra mouths to feed. My goats are not in a good pasture so I'm having to supplement them with hay and grain right now when they should be able to do without the grain. That grain is $14./50 pound bag and it feeds them for one week.
MollyD
yea... thats what I don't want to get into.. spending a fourtune on grain.. especially with the prices getting ready to skyrocket right now.. but I do have two acres that we normally keep mowed..
I have been reading about growing my own small farm hay & straw.. wheat & oats but not sure how to balance everyone with 2 acres...
The 2 acres is not where they are penned thats just the fields.. but as yet we have not been a working farmette.. just a pretty flowery place...
Still trying to find my balance.. and hey it is tough... this girl is from jersey!