Arizona Chickens

[City farm]

...

I am defiantly feeling better than i was on Monday. Thank you. I need to get better so I can make the carrot cake for Sunday. 

Like a true mother. Trying to get better to cook for other people.

You are always taking the words out of my mouth.. Moms are the best..

 

[City farm]

Colonoscopy is a breeze.  I wasn't in there very long and went shopping at the mall accross the street.  The will only do the procedure if you bring a driver with you because you cannot take the bus, taxi or any other public transit to get home for liability purposes.

Have you hugged a recordplayer today? --BB

Bobby Basham
Tucson, Arizona

No I have not hugged mine.. But I can't wait to play records!!! I will be have a party just to celebrate my new record player...

 

[City farm]

Do any of you use sand in your runs?  I use a mister and fan in the run and it is covered with a shade tarp so the soil gets real wet.  I thought if I had sand in it it would be better. 

Wanted to add, I do plan on adding sand to our run.. We use clipped grass, weeds, & tree debris.. What ever we can get for free..

 

[chicksurreal]

Right now we only have a flexible mister (see below) that I set on a patio table and I have a heavy duty fan behind it...so it acts kind of like an evaporative cooler. I use it everyday, so the ground doesn't completely dry and gets soggy by afternoon.

http://www.thegreenhead.com/2012/03/flexible-cooling-mister.php

Thanks!

 

[City farm]

I haven't been on lately and there are too many post to completely catch up.
I lost two of my laying hens today with the heat. I'm so bummed! One barred rock and one BO. They were both hatched last Oct so this was their first summer. They have shade (from trees and a shade cloth), plenty of water, mister was on and there was 1/2 of a frozen watermelon I put out at noon.
Now I have 6 laying hens and 7 10-week-old's. I'm hoping we don't loose any more but I thought we were doing everything right. Anything else I should be doing for them? I feel terrible!
I was expecting the chicks to have a harder time but I didn't expect two of my layers to die especially with all the precautions I was taking.
Tomorrow I will put out ice blocks several times during the day in hopes that will help. So sad!
Anything else I should do?

Condolences from us.. You are a good mom!!

It is hard to keep up on this Fourm.. I keep thinking, I NOT getting on to see how everyone's fowl is doing.. But, ugh, I just love the little s(;ts...plus always learning since we are just newbies.. Really, I think it is the garden talk as well!!

 

[chicksurreal]

Two great projects! How big will the coop be?

It's going to be 8' wide X 16' long. We've got it raised up about 30" or so off the ground and will have the roof sloping from 8' high in the front down to 6' in the back. There should be plenty of room in there for the 26 chicks we've got coming at the end of August.

 

[chicksurreal]

I dont use misters for my girls all i did was make a bowl shaped hole by the water facet and turn thr water on until its full and over running, my girls will then go over to it if they want to cool down or wait until it seeps into the ground and then lay and roll around in the mud lol, i call them my chicken-pigs lol.

We did pretty much the same thing while they are free-ranging yesterday. They hang out under some huge Sycamore trees that have grass on the ground during the hottest part of the day, I just turn the hose on and let them splash around in it as much as they want. I also give them frozen fruit and frozen bottles of water in their waterers. They still walk around panting and wings out. Poor babies.

I'm sorry to hear about all the losses due to heat. This time of year sucks for that.

 

[City farm]

I haven't been on lately and there are too many post to completely catch up.

I lost two of my laying hens today with the heat. I'm so bummed! One barred rock and one BO. They were both hatched last Oct so this was their first summer. They have shade (from trees and a shade cloth), plenty of water, mister was on and there was 1/2 of a frozen watermelon I put out at noon.

Now I have 6 laying hens and 7 10-week-old's. I'm hoping we don't loose any more but I thought we were doing everything right. Anything else I should be doing for them? I feel terrible!

I was expecting the chicks to have a harder time but I didn't expect two of my layers to die especially with all the precautions I was taking.

Tomorrow I will put out ice blocks several times during the day in hopes that will help. So sad!

Anything else I should do?

You are doing everything you can. Some birds just aren't going to be able to take our heat. I, too, lost birds today--2 Rhode Island Red cock birds, one was my founding breeder, his son I kept from last year and one of his daughters. They were fine yesterday morning when I fed, the older bird and the hen were dead this morning and the other male died this afternoon. They just keeled over. I had gone out in the heat of the day to turn on the mister and spray down the pens that didn't have misters and that is when I found the other male. I was a little too late. I had not had trouble with this breed in the heat last year and I felt that last year was hotter. I am rethinking breeding these if they can't take it here. I will try one more year. Maybe I will be selecting for the heat tolerant ones. What I have found is when we have relatively cool periods and then the temperature spikes suddenly, that is when I lose birds. It was also humid and no breeze. It is a real drag. Mine aren't pets but I hate to loose them that way. My founding cock was a nice show bird, he was only 2 years old. I was hoping he would be siring more chicks.

Condolences from us.. Even though they are not your pets.. You provide wonderful birds.. Someday we will have a few from you.. I have to say, we got Sadie, whom I really love.. She follows me, let's me hold her and is still laying in this heat..
She is either a Rhode Island Red or production red. We got her as a gift from @Arizonachicken
When I got home last night she was in the duck's water pan.. It is only about 1 1/2 inch of water with large rocks on one side..boy I thought she was a goner.. But she made it.. So happy.. I plan on going to get 2 large blocks of ice for them today.. Spoiled little brats..

 

[City farm]

I haven't been on lately and there are too many post to completely catch up.

I lost two of my laying hens today with the heat. I'm so bummed! One barred rock and one BO. They were both hatched last Oct so this was their first summer. They have shade (from trees and a shade cloth), plenty of water, mister was on and there was 1/2 of a frozen watermelon I put out at noon.

Now I have 6 laying hens and 7 10-week-old's. I'm hoping we don't loose any more but I thought we were doing everything right. Anything else I should be doing for them? I feel terrible!

I was expecting the chicks to have a harder time but I didn't expect two of my layers to die especially with all the precautions I was taking.

Tomorrow I will put out ice blocks several times during the day in hopes that will help. So sad!

Anything else I should do?

Sorry for your losses   You can put some electrolytes into there water to help them with the heat thats what i do with my girls. 
here is my recipe for electrolyte.

1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 Gallon Water

Hope this helps i know it does for my girls. 

Thank you for posting your recipe!!

 

[fordee7]

Dang it. We lost 'Thing 2" a beautiful grey Ameraucana and my daughters favorite. I sure hate having to tell my daughters. This morning when my 9 year old woke up the first thing she asked was 'Dad, did any of them die last night?'. Followed by lots of tears. It seems like we lose one every summer when the heat spikes. It seems a little odd that she made it through the day and died at 10 o'clock at night. This is also her 2nd summer which gave me false confidence that she'd be able to tolerate the heat.