Battling Extreme Desert Heat

[perchie.girl]

finally got to read the shade ball link... 37 freaking cents a piece? Really? 96,000,000 at 37 cents a piece... thats 35,520,000 dollars... the big reservoir looks like a bowl of caviar... LOL.

we can do the same at home with ping pong balls for water troughs and such...

 

[Mutt Farm]

I tried the link. Nothing about "shade balls". What the heck are they?

Millions of balls to reflect heat and reduce evaporation from the reservoirs. They also inhibit bacteria blooms?
try this link?
http://www.tmz.com/2015/08/11/california-throwing-shade-at-the-drought-video/

 

[pinkmartin73]

Millions of balls to reflect heat and reduce evaporation from the reservoirs. They also inhibit bacteria blooms? 
try this link?
 http://www.tmz.com/2015/08/11/california-throwing-shade-at-the-drought-video/

I couldn't get that to work either (#myphonehatesme) but did a search. That's crazy! Desperate times=desperate measures, I guess.

@perchie.girl pingpong balls in the waterer make sense. I've heard that slows freezing in winter too. Wish I knew how to keep it from getting slimy in 2 days time. Acv doesn't seem to help much.

 

[Sabz]

hey look up Fermented feeds for your next meat bird batch.... they eat less stink less and are more active more like normal chickens. and they put on the same amount of weight. and are healthier overall... No broken or splayed legs ....

Oh and for what its worth you can ferment any and all Chicken feed... all it takes is a buket and water and about 24 hours to get started....

deb

Thanks I do it, but not during the warmest days. My batch went bad for the first time in two years. I suppose it was due to the heat. Never any leg problems (well, one accident and one from vitamin deficiency but unrelated to their weights).

I found this summer very hard with meat birds. I did as some other suggested and hosed down the coop and pen a few times a day to cool it down.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Yep they get a coat of slime... I was on an internet group at Yahoo groups called DraftNDrive. Back when I first got my draft horse Katee. Most of the draft horse owners there were east coast mid west and north... All very COLd snowy winters where the water troughs woudl freeze... One thing some of them did was float a basket ball. Nice part about that is when the livestock pushed it aside there would be a little dip in the ice and the animals could break through to drink.

Many would use Gold fish to keep the water bug free and alge under control. Yep they lived year round even trough most freezes... Gold fish will hibernate. I keep Gold fish in every container over 50 gallons... Goats and horse.. We get a sheet of ice about half an inch thick sometimes in winter... But as soon as the sun comes out even a little everyone can break through.

deb

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
I hear many people start them in late summer to have them come to butcher weight in the cooler months... Easier on Processing day...

But even here in 110 degree summers I would be doing Fermented feed. But the really watery kind. I plan on doing the fermentation in the coop as well.

deb

 

[pinkmartin73]

Grandpa used to keep goldfish in the water troughs. I had totally forgotten about that. Too bad I only use 1 gal and 4 gal waterers for the birds lol. I do use acv with mother but honestly can't say if its doing anything beneficial.

 

[perchie.girl]

Grandpa used to keep goldfish in the water troughs. I had totally forgotten about that. Too bad I only use 1 gal and 4 gal waterers for the birds lol. I do use acv with mother but honestly can't say if its doing anything beneficial.

The one gallon tubs arent deep enough... I used five gallon tubs for the chickens and dont use anything in them. But I do dump em once a week and swish around a toilet bush to disturb and remove quite a bit of slime.... But it doesnt remove it all.

Here is what I use a stock tank valve and five gallon tub.




Each pen got this setup. up till now
I may go over to a trough arrangement like they use for quail pens... or similar to what they have on the chick brooders at the feed store. No more walking through or pooping in the drinking water... The one I saw was for a huge free flight pen which held a good thousand birds. The trough was about ten or twelve feet long and the water was circulated through a sand filter for accumulated debris collection. Sand filters also process organic material if done correctly there is little need for back flushing. What this does is allow only clean water run through the trough at a constant rate then the water level in the sump is handled by a float valve... All stored in a pit below ground to keep the water cooler... Keeps the water from freezing as well.

Sounds complicated but I have unlimited sun and wind power so electricity for just it will be solar.

deb

 

[pinkmartin73]

@perchie.girl

That sounds like an awesome way to set it up. Wish I could afford to do it. Right now we have a 4 gal waterer from the feed store. It has trough area all the way around. I fill it then once a day i dump whats in the trough part to wash away any debri and it refills from the resevoire. I dump the whole thing and scrub it every 3 or 4 days. Then on the other side of the run I keep a cheap 1 gal waterer. It gets cleaned in between the days I clean the bigger one. Always semi fresh water available.

 

[Clannad]

We had a week of 111 . I made shade with some old boards we had lying around and ran a box fan out to the run making sure it was blowing into the shady part. I froze water in plastic food containers which works like frozen water bottles and gives your chickens something cool to drink when it melts. I put ice cubes in their water and at night I put frozen water bottles in their nesting boxes.