Michigan

[YakLady]

I've been working my boo-hiney off this entire past week non-stop so that I do not have to do anything tomorrow. Picking up hubby at the airport at noon (Yay!) and then we're going out for a seafood b-day dinner. All that work has made me totally exhausted, yet unable to sleep. Going to bed now to give it another try.

 

[briana1975]

HBH I am headed over for breakfast. Frenchtoast is so yummy!!

Coffee, then off to get the few things we need for the weekend. We are actually fencing in a whole veggie garden this year. Mostly because the rabbits at everything they liked last year and just in case the chickens get any funny ideas about tasting stuff out of the garden.

 

[Opa]

Yesterday sure was a great day. We had to work hard for the 14 walleye we caught but it sure was great to be out on the lake. When my neighbor asked me to go with him and a friend of his I had no idea of who I would be fishing with or on what type of boat we would be on. Turns out his friend is a professional walleye tournament fisherman and last year was number one in the state. Talk about being set up for walleye fishing. The boat was a $50,000 boat that moved us from one place to another at 60 mph. Never been on a boat moving that fast. It was exhilarating to say the least. He kept apologizing for how poor the fishing was but when we came in most of the other people at the fish cleaning station had 3 or 4 fish to our 14. He definitely knew what he was doing. The nice thing is that he has invited me to go fishing with him again and I suppose I can force myself to accept.

 

[Huston's Happy Hens]

Glad you had some down time Sam! Hubby's gone to Osgosh WI with his siblings for a cousin's daughter's wedding....I regretfully

suggested I stay home to watch over the menagarie (sp)....so far I'm glad I made the decision - sitting on my dupa for 7-8 hours one way!!!!

when I could be out running around the yard planting/transplanting/feeding/watering/collecting eggs/planting the garden sounds much more fun to me!

Walk into the coop this morning and there's 3 hens over in the corner of the floor fighting over an egg they had cracked and were consuming!

Then a bit later went out again to check for eggs and there's Henrietta gobbling down her egg in one of the nesting boxes

Read about filling eggs with mustard....I think I'm going to pen her up by her lonesome and try this....anyone have any experience in this arena? Yes, I could take her to Col. Sanders, but she's 2 yrs old....and one of our original chicks that we raised by hand....yup, softy, that's me!

 

[Ramsdale]

Quote:
Speaking of heat and chickens... are you all doing anything to help keep your chickens cool? I've been lugging cold water up and down to them all day in between working on the new run... I'm burned and tired but made some good progress today! <-- me with sunburn doing the happy dance

 

[FlyingFChick]

Speaking of heat and chickens... are you all doing anything to help keep your chickens cool? I've been lugging cold water up and down to them all day in between working on the new run... I'm burned and tired but made some good progress today! [URL]http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-cool05.gif[/URL] <-- me with sunburn doing the happy dance

I have been freezing water bottles in put them inside of their waterer. It lasts a LONG time and they get nice cold water to drink. It has to help (I hope!!)

 

[bethanyrae]

Isn't this heat awful for so early??

I've made a shady spot for their big water dish so I don't have to replace the warm water so often.

I have some in a smaller pen that gets a cross breeze, and in the hottest part of the day I set up a hose with a "mist" option so that it sprays across the entrance, and it cools off their area quite nicely. It's really amazing how that mist will cool the nearby air. They don't like to be in the mist, but near it it's cooler.

I make sure their indoor coops are open for a good cross breeze. I've put 2 liter ice bottles in nesting boxes before, and especially with broodies. You have to keep rotating those in and out of the freezer. Be careful about contamination in your freezer!

Don't feed them scratch mix with corn, as that is supposed to warm them up. It's nice for cold winter days.

Any more ideas, anyone?

 

[Huston's Happy Hens]

So what did everyone else do 2day??? - I transplated stray sunflowers/pulled weeds for the girls (hens) planted 3/4 of the garden....went shopping for groceries.....need to get ready 4 tomorrow - night everyone!

 

[briana1975]

All I do on hot days is about noon head out with cold fresh water for all the coops. We actually built our coop in or shrubby wooded nature trails and they don't get to hot yet. I also let them out eariler to free range so they can get to the really shady spots for the hottest part of the day. I do have some butter dishes frozen with water in them for when it get really hot.

 

[Opa]

Today is going to be a warm day so make plans to do something fun and stay cool. Just remember that while summer is still 3 weeks away, Chickenstock is only 2 weeks away.