Minnesota!

[The BlanchRanch]

Rhett I cannot help you on your question, BUT thanks for answering mine.

I went to another thread and made mention that if I listed all my aches and pains it would scare the pants off you. I was immediately jumped on and my post was pulled for being vulgar, I am guessing...

Teach me to go to another thread...

They mentioned how inappropriate the phrase was as if it was some kind of sexual defiant thing. I was dumbfounded. I unsubscribed and came running back here to home ,never to leave again....

I am glad to be here then. I on the other hand I am shocked with the degree of censorship we have here. Some of the words that are censored are absolutely ridiculous.

Ive survived the sconie wedding and I have my spotted cow so I'm running back for the border!! All your talk about hot chickens has me worried about our hens but we haven't had issues before. We made sure their waters were full and put out extras. Hopefully today is less 'hades-like'

What..... No Moon Man???? Jeees.

 

[The BlanchRanch]

I lost an australorp today. Assuming it is from the heat. Just found her laying right next to the coop. No feathers or foul play no blood. I counted the chickens in the coop probably a dozen times to make sure I had them all. Too bad.
So besides making sure they have fresh cool water *which we change during the day often* what else can we do to combat the heat stress? What does everyone do for their flocks to mange them during these hot stretches? Yes, they have shade too. What else can I do for them?

Sorry about the loss.
Someone mentioned a few pages back about adding ice to their water. So I did that and also made a mix with scratch, chicken food and calcium grit; then I added a little water and some ice. I wanted to make the horrible day not so horrible for them. They seemed to really like it all.

 

[Cyrus83]

I gave my birds frozen watermelon yesterday and they loved it.

 

[duluthralphie]

This is what turkey gangs do and were they hang out!

 

[Minniechickmama]

Maybe you can make your own area? Might be easier the getting the kids to use a separate area.

You can have two queues. We do.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Our fair is done. They kids did well enough. It was a fun for them to show the rabbits. It was fun for me to watch and not have to run and get stuff for them the whole time. I am finally to the point with them where I say, "they are your responsibility, so you go do it." They closed down early, and animals were leaving before 10:00 this morning. The heat was just too much, I guess. Today was supposed to be another hot one and then storms expected later, so I guess they just wanted to get everything out before any disasters struck. It felt weird though to go in and most everything was packed up and half the animals were already loaded.

We will miss the State Fair since we are heading to a wedding in Western NY that week the kids would be up there for livestock. Without the poultry, I think I would be sad to go up anyway. Next year though, we will be there with some dang nice birds, I think.

Everyone enjoy the coming cooler weather, I know I will!

 

[KlopKlop]

Our birds did fine in the heat with no ice water, just plenty of shady spots and the coops opened up to 'breathe'!
In other news I got my first ever fart egg today! It looks almost comical being so small!

 

[Rhetts]

Those oops eggs are so tiny it is funny! I really enjoy these cooler temps. You can actually be outside doing things. I was able to weed in the garden today. And the veggies that have grown with that rain we got!! Wow!

I made it through the weekend with minimal suffering. My mom is on her way back home. I think she enjoyed her time so I must have done something right. Trying to take a more relaxed approach really helped. Thanks.

So I have another question for you all. I have one rooster that seems to think he should be in the nest boxes. He is huge (a Brahma still maturing) and breaking my eggs. He sleeps in there at night. I was thinking of tacking up some sort of cover for at night to keep all nest boxes off limits. But that means I would have to go out to the coop sooner in the morning to uncover it. That may or may not be an issue. But that doesn't solve the fact that he goes in during the day. How about adding a bigger lip to the bottom so it is a smaller opening? But I do have larger breeds that need to get in and out of the boxes too. How big should the nest openings be or not be? Any thoughts? If it continues and he cannot be broken of his hiding in the boxes habit I have no intentions of keeping him. Plain and simple I need the eggs and there are other roosters.

 

[duluthralphie]

Rhetts, Nothing tastes as good as a young rooster!

 

[KlopKlop]

Speaking of roosters, we finally picked a name for our Rainbow roo we kept. We were at the wedding and met an older gentleman with a great name, such inspiring us to name him Conrad!
We also got a few good old lady name ideas