Consolidated Kansas

[HEChicken]

Oh wow Danz, you make me feel guilty about all the work you accomplished on a hot summer day. I confess I "hid" indoors most of yesterday. I typically get out for about two hours in the early morning and then another 2-3 hours in the evening but spend the hot part of the day doing inside tasks. Yesterday, being Saturday, I was really lazy and didn't even do too many of those. I don't take many days off but sometimes on a Saturday when I don't have anything I have to do, I will.

Trish, I'm really surprised to hear you say that your SS are ornery as my experience with the breed has been that they are a very docile, laid-back breed. That little one I got from you is just that way as well. The other day she got into a narrow strip under the horse shelter that they have a hard time getting out of. I left her there a few hours hoping she'd find her own way out but when she didn't, I figured I should rescue her before she dropped from heat exhaustion. I had to take down a panel to get there which is one of the reasons I wasn't in a hurry to do it, but when I did, and started to walk in to get her, she didn't panic like some other breeds do, and practically walked right into my arms. I then just set her down on top of the fence so she could jump down into the chicken yard when she was ready and she ran off to get a drink of water. The funny thing is, when I was taking down the panel preparatory to going in there, I was thinking the whole time "Well, thank goodness its the SS at least - any of the others and I'd be in for a rodeo catching her".

I came back from milking the cow this morning to see that the sheep and goat does had got out of their rotational paddock - and Kilo had got himself stuck in there. I know how they did it - there is a spot where they can wade across some shallow water to get around the fence. I just didn't think they'd do it. What was funny was that Kilo apparently waded to get in the same time the rest of them waded to get out. Only my goat buck, Smoky, and Kilo were inside the electric by the time I came home with the cow milk. I had to hastily get out there and get the sheep in and Kilo out. Egad - like I want to be running around in this heat moving animals! By the time I got done milking the goats I was really hot and sweaty - and it was still only 8am.

 

[chicken danz]

My sussex are big babies that will sit in your lap if you have goodies. I've never had one that was mean or aggressive. Trish, are you sure the one that grabs the scoop isn't just trying to eat. I'll bet if you sat down in there with a treat she'd be a lap chicken. I have one that jumps in the feed bucket sometimes when I'm feeding but it sure isn't aggression. I sure don't understand the aggression part.
I had a few people message me yesterday and mention it being a cooler day. I am thinking they had to be further north and west. I did see it got up to 92 in Topeka but we were at 101 before noon. I saw Emporia reached 100 but it was even hotter here.And the humidity was ranging between 70 and 90 %. It felt like the worst day so far. I think the fact there was absolutely no wind and the heat and humidity just hit it out of the park. Miserable miserable day. I think by mid afternoon some of the humidity had burnt off. Although it was super hot and still it didn't seem quite as impossible to breath.
I had to take several breaks but stayed determined to get some work done. I moved my mottles into the pen by the hen house with the black girls I have been keeping for layers. Of course it wasn't a good day for the rooster cause the other rooster beat him up. I'll check him today and maybe pull the rooster I had in there out if they aren't getting along. I dipped all those birds. When it cools enough to clean the building I'll spray it down and see if I can keep the place mite and lice free.
I got another gate panel up on the outside of the building. Got the openings cut for the pop doors. I still have one more pop door to put together and install for the gate panels I have installed. Then I started moving birds and again dipping each one. I moved the ones that were in those pens down to other pens, then moved in my bluegold brahmas, and my blue brahmas from the large pen they had been outside. I've separated them now to two groups. I still have some young pullets that I need to move into the blues. I don't have a perfect rooster to use so I have to decide whether to settle for one with a little gold on him or use a black one. I don't want to use black because I don't want to create additonal black chicks. My black brahmas are a wonderful breeding and I don't want to mix lines. But I don't want to introduce red either. Decisions decisions.
I have a ton more chicken moving to get done as well. As soon as I get the next pop door in, I'm moving the partridge into that pen and adding some of my many partridge girls to the group. They are beautiful birds. Using a blue background my girls are lighter and show more of the markings than your average partridge.
I got 20 bales of older straw delivered yesterday morning so hopefully I have enough for bedding for the winter in my outdoor pens. I traded ducks and a nice POL hen for them. I'm using the big round bale for the gardens cause it's not as fresh.
We got some rain early this morning but it was more lightening and thunder than rain. I went out and walked 50 feet and got like two drops on me. Glad to get some moisture as long as the temperature cools down. Maybe we'll get more rain this week.

 

[HEChicken]

Yesterday was the worst day here too Danz - our weather was just exactly as you described except I never looked at the thermometer to know actual temps/humidity. All I know is it was my nephew's first birthday and they had planned the party to be outside, but it was a miserable evening to be outside. There wasn't a breath of wind and it was hot and steamy. Even a little breeze would have been welcome.

I woke this morning to find that the cool change finally moved in and the thermometer said 71. The humidity is up because we had a sprinkling of rain but at least the temp is down somewhat. There is an 80% chance of rain for most of today but at the same time the total accumulation isn't supposed to be more than ¼". I am just thankful for the cloud layer keeping the sun from beating down.

 

[rlh1]

Me awesome husband started working on my dream coop!

 

[rlh1]

Some pics of my chicks.

 

[rlh1]

This is my sweetest roo. He's a SF

 

[chicken danz]

RH1, looks like he's making some progress there. Curious. What is SF when you are describing your roo? Well duh! I just figured that out. Salmon Faverolle. I couldn't see the red on his back. Yes they are super sweet birds.

 

[HEChicken]

rlh1, that is a gorgeous coop - I love the gambrel style. When I was building my coop, I really wanted to do the gambrel style roof but wound up doing a gable style simply because it was easier.

Do let us know how the ladder style roost works for you. When I built my coop, I started with a ladder style roost but had a problem in that all the birds wanted to be on the highest rung. Bedtime was stressful as it would fill up first, but the remaining birds would still try to get up there. So they'd jump up and in doing so, knock off a bird, who would squawk her protest and then try to get back up there. For up to two hours, there was constant squabbling until it got too dark and they'd finally go to sleep. After a few months where it showed no sign of settling down, I wound up dismantling the ladder style and rebuilt the roost with parallel bars instead. The bonus was that where I only had room for 3 horizontals with the ladder style, the parallel roost allowed for 4 horizontal roost bars in the same space. The night time squabbling stopped instantly I rebuilt the roosts and bedtime is a lot more peaceful now.

Here is what I had:



and here is what I replaced it with:



The parallel roosts are installed on the wall with a lag bolt, while the front is supported by the free-standing legs. This allows me to fold the entire unit up against the wall when it comes time to clean out the coop, so it isn't in my way as much as the ladder style roost was either.

However part of my problem may have been too many birds

If I'd had few enough they all fit on the top roost, there wouldn't have been any need for arguing over positions at bedtime. (Of course if I'd had that few birds, I guess I really wouldn't have needed the other two levels either.)

 

[chicken danz]

I didn't have good luck with the ladder roosts either. I ended up building a modified ladder type. I built it like a flat ladder laying on the ground but of course up above the floor. So it provides two roosts that are on one wall support, similar to what HEChicken has here but it has a ladder construction for strength since it goes wall to wall. I also ran a diagonal support so the birds can roost going the other direction. That gives me three lengths of roost in little space. I'm still trying to figure out what to do for roosts in my building. Having chain link runs prevents a lot of standard construction. Building supports in each pen would be costly and time consuming. I guess some day I'll have it all figured out. meanwhile they have to be content to sit on the floor or on top the covered nest boxes. These big birds aren't all that crazy about using roosts anyway.

 

[Trish44]

@rlh1 it looks like the coop is coming along & he's doing an awesome job! My first coop at this house was a converted shed like that & I'm still using it. I moved it here from my other house & it's an old building now. We had to re-side it at one point because the siding was getting in bad shape. The floor is starting to have issues in places so eventually I will have to replace that too. The biggest issue I have is I have added windows on both sides & the door but it still gets really hot in there. I have put vents at the back as well but I think maybe a roof vent would help a lot. I'm just reluctant to cut a hole in the roof because of possible leaking. Ventilation is really, really important in the coop because of the ammonia that builds up from the droppings. I agree with Danz & HEChicken about the ladder roosts. I tried that as well but it didn't work for me either for the same reason, the birds fought over the top rung & it just wasn't a good situation. I replaced mine as well with roosts on both sides of the coop that are horizontal 2x4s. I have two rows on both sides the full length of the coop. The one on the right going in has one that is lower so they can jump up on it & get up to the higher one. None of the birds use the lower one at all. I also have a board running the full width of the coop under my big metal nest boxes so they can jump up on that & get up to the nest boxes. Are you going to add windows to your coop? You definitely will need some ventilation in there.

We got some rain during the night, but I'm not sure how much, we can use it now because it's been really hot & it's drying everything out. Yesterday we spent the afternoon & evening with our granddaughter. We hadn't seen her all summer, so it was nice to spend some time with her. She is growing up way too fast! We took her to a movie she chose & out to eat. It was so hot & there was virtually no air moving so it was just stifling out there. I look forward to a bit cooler day today even if it is humid, ugh I hate this heat.