Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Quote:
Oh no, I'm so sorry about your hen! You just have not had good luck at all this year! Very, very sorry.

We hit 111 yesterday, too. I heard it is supposed to be even hotter today. I just have had enough. I didn't work this morning either, the driveway was already burning up to the touch this morning. Just going to work in the evening. I plan on using a heat lamp, so even with the pop door open during the day, they should be okay? I like the heated dog bowls, but yeah, they would probably drown in it since they will still be little.

I'll be looking into other options, but my Atwoods always gets some really neat things in for chickens and rabbits. I'll be scoping it out early, like you suggested so I won't lose out. I'll need to buy my heat lamp in another month or so too before the chicks arrive in October... but the farm store has a lot of those sitting on the shelf right now. They had about 30 bulbs of both colors, too. I bet they get in more this Fall.

What do you think about the 15X15 opening? Is that still too big- even for a turkey?

I think your opening will be fine. Most of mine are 12 X 12 and I just have chickens living in the coops. I guess the thing with my chickens is that when you have so many it seems like your end up with more casualties. I have water everywhere as usual and put a bucket with water and a gallon bag of ice in it out in the laying coop. I also repositioned the fan hoping it would blow right on the hens instead of just circulating air. I drug another1000 gallon stock tank out and am trying to figure out a way to make steps up to it so the ducks and my dogs can take a swim in it. I have a couple little 50 gallon ones that they use but I have way too many to fit in them.
I am so ready for this heat to break.
I don't feel like doing anything after I get done feeding and watering. I have lots of building I need to get done before fall but it isn't happening.

 

[chicken danz]

Loralee, I found a post last year where you take a metal pan. They sell a metal dog pan at Walmart for like $2.78 or something that is excellent. You cut a hole in the side and insert a porcelain socket. Those are readily available at Lowes and Home Depot or some place similar. I have taken some from old light fixtures I don't use any more. (always recycling!) You can put like a 25 watt bulb in the socket and of course wire up a cord to it. (Don't use a higher wattage or it will get too hot.) If you don't have a lamp cord available there are 6 foot extension cords you can buy at the $1 Stores for $1 and just cut off the female end and use that as your plug in. You simply set the waterer on top of the metal pan.
The one problem with this design is that it needs to be someplace dry, unless you attach a bottom. I have used an piece of metal or an old plate and silicone caulked it to hold it in place on the bottom. It works fine, but of course if your bulb burns out then you have to remove the plate and re caulk it. Another option I have found that works really well is to use an old metal cookie tin that has a lid. You simply make it the same way but you have a lid on the bottom to help keep out moisture. Look for one that is bigger around and not so tall. This is the cheapest way I know to make a warmer. You can sometimes find these at thrift shops or garage sales if you don't want to buy new. Or you can just buy a tin of cookies, eat the cookies and go from there.

Some people simply hang their heat lamps right over the waterer to keep them from freezing.
It helps me think cool thoughts when it's so hot. As bad as this is I'd still rather have the heat than cold and snow though.

 

[Ivywoods]

chicken danz-So sorry to hear about your hen. This heat and humidity is a killer. I work evenings and don't get home and get to bed until 4-5 in the morning. Then I sleep for a while, so by the time I get out to do chores it is already hotter than heck and I have to get chores done before I leave in the evening.

There's a thread on here called "cookie tin water heater." I made several of these last year and they worked great. I used them in my little pens. I don't think they would be big enough for a very big pen, but a bigger pan and bigger bulb would work. I used a heated dog waterer in my layer coop. It worked well except it really wasn't quite big enough for the number of birds I had so I had to fill it twice a day. I think this year since I've got more birds I'm going to have to get one of the bigger water heaters that goes under the big galvanized auto waterers.....or I may try making one myself.

Loralee-15" pop up door should be fine for your turkeys. I love Royal palms. They are so pretty, and I love making them gobble. We had some when we lived back at Solomon and they would call the wild turkeys up to the pen. I'd go out to the poultry pens and there would be a whole flock of wild turkeys surrounding the turkey pen.

 

[HEChicken]

Quote:
I'm so sorry to hear about your hen. But, oh no, you're scaring me. Having never had a broody hen, I now have a BSL who is a year a half old insisting on sitting for the first time. They are forecasting 113 for us today and I'm concerned about her. I just went and put a pop bottle full of ice next to her but when I did that yesterday afternoon I found it on the floor later. I think she considered it an interloper and pushed it away from her. I don't know what else I can do to try to keep her cool. Right now she is sitting on infertile eggs but I'm picking up some fertile eggs this evening for her.

 

[Hawkeye95]

chickenDanz and IvyWoods-- wow, thanks for the heater tips. I will definitely be checking out those ideas! I could make it now and be ready in plenty of time! Thanks!

IvyWoods- so cool that you had Royal Palms, too! I think I'd love to get a Tom - I would love to have a strutting hissing and gobbling turkey! We had turkeys when I was a kid too- but I don't know what kind they were. (it was my dad's thing) The turkey thread tells me that they roost just like chickens and they put them together in coops with no issues. And supposedly the Royal Palms are very laid back. I think they are beautiful! My hen keeps getting more and more black & white feathers on her. She has the typical black banding on her wing tips and tail feathers.

LN008- ack, it's too hot to be working on a coop during the day! I'm just building early morning and late evening. And the last two mornings I haven't work at all- it's been too hot. It is utterly miserable! Do you have a location or any idea of what you are going to build? You should upload your ideas or sketches to your BYC Page so we can see what you are planning! Are you going to build it right on the ground, or raise it up? Anyway, progress is slow on mine since I only have a couple of hours I can work a day. Totally stinks.

My crazy lame brained goal was to be DONE in two more weeks! HA! we shall see... but I doubt it.

 

[ByN8ureHomstead]

Quote:
Oh no, I'm so sorry about your hen! You just have not had good luck at all this year! Very, very sorry.

We hit 111 yesterday, too. I heard it is supposed to be even hotter today. I just have had enough. I didn't work this morning either, the driveway was already burning up to the touch this morning. Just going to work in the evening. I plan on using a heat lamp, so even with the pop door open during the day, they should be okay? I like the heated dog bowls, but yeah, they would probably drown in it since they will still be little.

I'll be looking into other options, but my Atwoods always gets some really neat things in for chickens and rabbits. I'll be scoping it out early, like you suggested so I won't lose out. I'll need to buy my heat lamp in another month or so too before the chicks arrive in October... but the farm store has a lot of those sitting on the shelf right now. They had about 30 bulbs of both colors, too. I bet they get in more this Fall.

What do you think about the 15X15 opening? Is that still too big- even for a turkey?

The Narragansett hen I had would easily go though a 11" round opening so would the geese.

 

[ByN8ureHomstead]

Quote:
I use a 5 gallon bucket with nipples on the bottom. I have chicks a week old drinking from a nipple. In the winter I use a 250 watt stock tank heater that is OK for plastic. Last winter sometimes (very seldom) one of the 3 nipple would kind of freeze up but nothing bad and they always have fresh unfrozen water.

 

[ByN8ureHomstead]

Quote:
I'm so sorry to hear about your hen. But, oh no, you're scaring me. Having never had a broody hen, I now have a BSL who is a year a half old insisting on sitting for the first time. They are forecasting 113 for us today and I'm concerned about her. I just went and put a pop bottle full of ice next to her but when I did that yesterday afternoon I found it on the floor later. I think she considered it an interloper and pushed it away from her. I don't know what else I can do to try to keep her cool. Right now she is sitting on infertile eggs but I'm picking up some fertile eggs this evening for her.

I have a broody hen and she is sitting on walnuts. I have put eggs under her and she moves she has eggs all around her but won't sit on them.

 

[HEChicken]

Quote:
Too funny!

 

[Hawkeye95]

So, I have made more progress! My husband helped me put the walls up and we leveled them and they are great! I will have to frame up the other two walls and get those put up next. I just keep plugging away.... slowly, but surely. But wow this heat is insane. My oldest mare tried to die on me this afternoon. She nearly had heat stroke, she went down out in the pasture and I could barely get her up. Got her to the barn, hosed her down and kept her in her stall in the barn. Went out there and hosed her down a few more times when she started to dry off. She is feeling much better now, and drinking and drinking. But... WOW. This is the second time she's done that during this heat wave. She's barely hanging on out there. I'll have to be more careful to bring her in before it gets too hot.

ByNatureFarms... did you give your hen walnuts to sit on??! That is hilarious!!!