Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

[satay]

Ick - heatwave!!  Have I mentioned the warmer months are not my favourite?  As I work full time I cannot be home to monitor my flock so I've done the best I can with frozen bottles of water, frozen peas and corn in their water, put out a couple of shallow dishes of water.

Short of that, I really can't do anything else for them.  I've instructed my husband that when he gets home if he can go check on them all and hose down the run a bit and also do a bit of the coop floor.



Also some more sad news regarding the chicks - I'm now down to five  my only bantam Rock remaining had managed to squeeze out through a small gap in the brooder box and was exposed in the coop by himself and couldn't find his way back inside.  He was pecked and attacked so badly by my other hens there was no hope for him so I had my husband put him out of his misery.

I've since blocked up the gap so that won't happen again.  
So far this has been my worst hatch out of the three I've done.


Also Satay, I was out your neck of the woods yesterday.  I was silently berating myself for having broken my broodies or I could have popped into your house to pick up some Marans eggs 

K im sorry for your loss of your little rock I saw your post yesterday on fb about you being out this way. I was going to mention you stop in til I saw the reason you were out here. I hope it went ok it wasn't the best day for it.. it got to 40.5 here yesterday and we have been getting extreme fire warnings via mobile half the night. We thankfully have no fires out this way right now and I sure hope it stays that way.They are worried about dry lightening strikes with all the dead stuff out here at the moment as I am sure you would have seen yesterday, It's supposed to hit 45c today 15c above average for this time of year.

 

[satay]

It's usually labelled calcium carbonate.
We have ducklings hatching in every direction.

 

[satay]

No problemo Jellyballoo

I order 1,000 large at a time and keep them in back fridge.  Large is a nice size for my bantams.  They come with instructions on how to keep them alive for a week, a month or 3 months, depending on your needs.  1,000 usually lasts a month to six weeks here but with the chicks, I currently have 9 in total eating 4-5 a day each so probably more like a month.  As long as you have some air holes in the container, give them apple or some vegetable matter for moisture and leave them out of the fridge for the whole day every so often so that they 'wake up' and have a good feast; they can live up to 3 months.  Putting them in the fridge slows down their life cycle process so they do not morph into pupa as quick.

I take them out of the fridge maybe an hour or so before I am going to use them so that they wake up and are nice and wriggly ... the girls love them!

PS.  You can also buy dried meal worms and while I have a bag, I haven't tried them on the gals yet.  Keeping them just in case I ever run out of live ones   

I have often thought of buying meal worms for the girls but the amount of hens I have I would be bankrupt in no time

 

[K Spot]

K im sorry for your loss of your little rock

I saw your post yesterday on fb about you being out this way. I was going to mention you stop in til I saw the reason you were out here. I hope it went ok

it wasn't the best day for it.. it got to 40.5 here yesterday and we have been getting extreme fire warnings via mobile half the night. We thankfully have no fires out this way right now and I sure hope it stays that way.They are worried about dry lightening strikes with all the dead stuff out here at the moment as I am sure you would have seen yesterday, It's supposed to hit 45c today

15c above average for this time of year.

Thanks Satay, I had only met this step-grandmother of my husband's once - she was not a nice lady at all so no tears were shed from me. We just made the trip out there out of respect.

I hope all your flock manage the heat out there. I will say I'll be worried about mine all day while I'm stuck at work.

 

[K Spot]

@Fancychooklady those ducklings are cutie patooties!

 

[satay]

Thanks Satay, I had only met this step-grandmother of my husband's once - she was not a nice lady at all so no tears were shed from me.  We just made the trip out there out of respect.  


I hope all your flock manage the heat out there.  I will say I'll be worried about mine all day while I'm stuck at work. 


 

I have already added lots of frozen water bottles to the runs put ice in the sheep waterers and have filled many containers around the place for the native wild life if they need it., My neighbours think i'm mad cause when it gets really hot I fill shallow containers(kitty litter boxes) for the local snakes as they need to cool off and drink in this weather too. I don't have those ones up near the house but I don't want them to die in the heat either.

 

[appps]

Oh k spot so sorry to hear about your chick, could have been how our day ended yesterday too so can imagine how awful that would be to find.

Since ours did survive it's excursion to the other side yesterday thought I'd try integrating today but ended in a big fight between mum penny who has never stood up to anyone in her life and winry. Everyone ignored peep but I thought it was going to get trampled as everyone else including peep went and hid in the broody area.

Had anticipated problems with them accepting peep, didn't think about problems with mum. I'm trying to integrate now before peep falls into the single new chicken in the flock category and his mum is over the protect it broody stage. So far not going well though.

 

[IamSamSam]

I have already added lots of frozen water bottles to the runs put ice in the sheep waterers and have filled many containers around the place for the native wild life if they need it., My neighbours think i'm mad cause when it gets really hot I fill shallow containers(kitty litter boxes) for the local snakes as they need to cool off and drink in this weather too. I don't have those ones up near the house but I don't want them to die in the heat either.

YAY gotta look out for the snakes

 

[IamSamSam]

Sorry to hear about the little one K

 

[satay]

YAY gotta look out for the snakes

Yah know me well At 43c at 11.30 am i have to do something to keep them cool. Mila and turbo have the fans going full bore beside their enclosures.