Consolidated Kansas

[Prairie Fleur]

Trish, you're not close to me but you are almost directly on the way to my brother in laws. We don't get there often but we do occasionally. Let me know if you'd have a pullet or two available sometime and we may be going by.

 

[Prairie Fleur]

It actually depends on the color. India blues are the youngest to be able to sex. You can start sexing them at around 3 months.  I also have whites and lavenders as well as a couple others that need to be at least 6 months old before they can be sexed. KSKingBee is near Marion and I am near Burlington and Waverly.
I went out to open things up for the birds and found the escape guineas up against the door of their pen. So I opened the door and after a couple tries got them to walk into the pen. The old guineas are about to be dead guineas though. They decided to turn bully. I let the bourbon reds out to free range today and the guineas were chasing and biting on them. They did that yesterday with the midget whites but there are more of them so they finally gave up. I won't tolerate them being overly mean if they continue. I hate that cause these birds have been here 4-5 years now and I don't have to worry about them. But if every time I let a bird out of the pen they pick on it that won't work.
I put a mister in the midgets pen too. It is just so hot and they needed something to keep them cool.

Do you get to Wichita now and then? We come up to shop and maybe we could meet somewhere. Your peafowl sound gorgeous!!
It is hot and very humid here today too. We got about .85" of rain last night and I'm very thankful because the garden needed it but its terribly hard to work outside. My poor birds and other animals!!

 

[chicken danz]

Prairie Fleur you are so lucky to have gotten rain. We are now getting huge cracks in the ground because it's just too dry.

Well this has been another bad day. I lost one hen that wasn't feeling well first thing this morning. It was kind of a relief that she went.
But I went out this afternoon to water and had 4 of my biggest buff orpington hens down and not responding. I had two others that were laying down but after soaking them down and making them sit in a trash can lid full of water for a few minutes they were okay. I totally drenched these other four hens and their heads were falling over and they couldn't walk. Then I carried them into the house and laid them on the floor by the back door. I gave each one of them a couple drops of pedialite but they weren't swallowing well so I didn't force them to have more. After spending a couple more hours out there trying to get all the birds cooled down to some degree I came back in. One of the hens is up and walking The other three are still laying but did have their heads up part of the time. I fixed a bowl of chipped ice, water and pedialite and tried to get them to drink but they weren't interested. Then I fixed a ziplock bag full of water and ice and just sat it down between them. If I can get their body temperature back down and then get their electrolytes built back up they might pull through. But I doubt it. In the past when I had birds get this over heated they suffered some brain damage and ended up dying anyway after a few days, or the next really hot day. These are some awesome big prize quality girls and it just makes me sick . The two smaller ones seem to be okay out there.
One of my biggest white Orpington cockerels was down as well but he responded well to getting a drink other than being a little wobbly on his feet. I think he will probably be okay. I have plenty of them but of course it's always the biggest birds. I have a thermostat in the brooder house which is sitting between 4 areas where the air vents through. It said it was 101 in there and it was cooler in there than it was outside.
I had birds in the coop in the grow out pen house but it's dark in there and I didn't want to get them over excited in the heat. I may have some losses out there too.
It's days like this I just hate having nice birds. Because if they were just all barnyard quality that I could let free range they would probably be okay.
My male GP was over heated as well and not walking very well. I hooked up a mister under a shade tree and he was there for a short time but I don't know where he went. I hope he is okay. The ducks took over the area and are standing in the mist enjoying them selves.
I have a few broodies I am really worried about because they aren't smart enough to get off the nests. One of those is my oldest India Blue peahen. I think she has about 8 eggs she is sitting on now.
I just feel sick that I still don't have power out there after the damage from the storm. If I had fans going like I normally would in this weather those hens might have been okay.

 

[Prairie Fleur]

We've had more rain this summer than I've ever seen in our area. Much cooler temps as well until just recently. Now the temps And humidity are so high that it's incredible. It was upper 90s today and I think upper 90s humidity as well. Does humidity bother chickens or is dry heat worse?
So sorry for your losses Chicken Danz!!!!! That's horrible!!!

 

[Prairie Fleur]

Here's a few pics of my chickens that I took today when they were free ranging for the first time here.

 

[KsKingBee]

Hi Chicken Danz! Thanks for the info! Where are you from if you don't mind me asking? I'll see if I can find KS King Bee and see what he has. When would your peachicks be old enough to sex?

Here I am!

. Send me a pm and let me know what you would like. I could let go of a couple of yearling pairs of India blues or chicks if you want to go that route.

 

[chicken danz]

Prairie Fleur, very pretty birds you have there. I envy you having those trees. I don't feel we have nearly enough and then that wind storm took out over half of the limbs from them leaving us without nearly as much shade. I think you and KSKingBee may work out a deal on peafowl but if not I will be coming to the Wichita area more often than I had been. My son just moved there last Friday.

I got ready to try to take the hens back outside last night about dark. I started with the one that was doing the best. I sat her down in the pen and she was still weaving and wobbly so I brought her back in. The other three were sitting up but not walking yet. I just took them all down to my basement since it's just junk and storage right now. It was much cooler down there any way. I haven't been down to check on them yet this morning. I just gave them some water and pedialite and some feed and hope they did okay. Their body temperatures were still really high so they hadn't gotten back down to normal yet. One of them obviously was having some brain problems and not being able to hold her head without it weaving around.
It was so hot outside that I thought it felt very comfortable in the house. I didn't even realize that my Air Conditioner had stopped working. DH had been in cool buildings all day and he realized how hot it was in here. We had to shut it down and then wait a while and restart it. Not sure what the problem was other than I am sure it was over worked. I need to check the battery on the thermostat and see if it is still good.
I honestly don't think I can handle another day like yesterday. It was at least 103 here but I didn't check the temperature until like 7:00Pm so I'm not sure how hot it actually got. I am sure the heat index was much higher. I was so wet and dirty just from sweat by evening. My shower felt wonderful.
I need to get out and check a couple of the houses this morning and make sure I didn't loose any more birds to the heat yesterday. I also want to feed them early so they get at least most of it digested before it gets hot again.

 

[KsKingBee]

We are getting a nice shower!

Danz, you might get the other side of this cloud, it just skimmed us and is going between you and us. Keep your fingers crossed!

Broody hens did a good job for us, we hatched seven peachicks and have two more to go in these two clutches, all from our black shoulder pen.

 

[Prairie Fleur]

Danz, We used one of the shadiest spots on the yard for my chicken coop. The chickens seem to approve. we had a bad storm come thru here early summer and it took out several old dead trees. One barely missed our house and the other fell right after hubby and I got to the house after running under it! I was shaky the rest of the evening. Thankfully there wasn't too much damage to our other trees.
The chickens had a fine time free ranging yesterday. They aren't proficient grasshopper catchers yet but the love it when you catch them for them! Lol
Sure hope you have a better day today than yesterday!!!!

 

[Prairie Fleur]

Here I am!  e . Send me a pm and let me know what you would like.  I could let go of a couple of yearling pairs of India blues or chicks if you want to go that route.

I sent you a pm hopefully I did it correctly! I'm still figuring out this website and how it all works!