MJ's little flock

[BDutch]

Fancy Nancy, Martha, Hilda and Nelly the Welly.

View attachment 4288857

Fancy Nancy and Nelly the Welly do sound a bit off for a family name.

Maybe Mad Martha and Hilarious Hilda would fit it the series ?

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I feel you with the heat. It's still 33 here @ 7pm . My chicks are spending very little time under their hens but are still caged. I have a murder of crows about & the chicks are just the right size for being a choice tit-bit. Wrold had Anixe out in the run by now. I did close the coop for a couple of hours this morning so they could explore a little but it really needs to be open for the layers.

It sure gets hard to keep them safe and thriving in excessive heat. The chicks have been ok at my place but the hens have needed a few options for keeping cool.

I’m trying to remember what I was doing in last summer’s heatwave (it’s 7°/-14°C here this morning .)

One huge success was partially burying a large rectangular plastic Rubbermaid tub in the soil and filling it with water from the garden hose to belly depth. A few submerged bricks allowed them to first cool their legs before getting up their nerve to go all in. Heavily panting pullets cooled off within minutes.


A second was having a shade cloth-covered area for deep dust bathing. 8-10 cm down, the soil was appreciably cooler than the air and the surface soil.

The final partial success was using small clip-on camping fans to keep a breeze blowing on them. The ones I bought had rechargeable batteries, had four speeds, and oscillated so that there wasn’t just an endless blast of air. The “partial” success was because the Buff Orp noped right on out, suspicious of the little black whirring things.

I hope the heat breaks for you and your ladies soon!

https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Rec...-Essentials/dp/B0DWMHY6V1/ref=ast_sto_dp_puis

 

[MaryJanet]

I’m trying to remember what I was doing in last summer’s heatwave (it’s 7°/-14°C here this morning .)

One huge success was partially burying a large rectangular plastic Rubbermaid tub in the soil and filling it with water from the garden hose to belly depth. A few submerged bricks allowed them to first cool their legs before getting up their nerve to go all in. Heavily panting pullets cooled off within minutes.


A second was having a shade cloth-covered area for deep dust bathing. 8-10 cm down, the soil was appreciably cooler than the air and the surface soil.

The final partial success was using small clip-on camping fans to keep a breeze blowing on them. The ones I bought had rechargeable batteries, had four speeds, and oscillated so that there wasn’t just an endless blast of air. The “partial” success was because the Buff Orp noped right on out, suspicious of the little black whirring things.

I hope the heat breaks for you and your ladies soon!

View attachment 4289455

https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Rec...-Essentials/dp/B0DWMHY6V1/ref=ast_sto_dp_puis

Are you familiar with Adelaide? Maybe you've lived here and recall the dryness of the heatwaves and the length of the days? My place is between the beach and the port and you'll recall what the soil is like down here.

Over the years I've tired a range of fans for the hens and it hasn't been successful. They simply walk away from them. But the fan has been handy for additional ventilation in the room the chicks are in. Perhaps it would be different for Ribh as her heat would be extremely humid while the heat I live with is extremely dry.

I've tried everything recommended online and then some, eg, there's a misting system set up in the run which works like a giant evaporative air conditioner. When I first got hens, I used to ask for advice on what to do but nothing was effective. I think that's because there's no describing how dry the heat is, so people offering advice are simply misguided by their reading of my context. I use the words 'extremely dry' but people never seemed to grasp what ti really meant. No doubt I need to choose different words.

Lots of trial and error over several years taught me that the most successful approach is to run the garden hose out to the hens' favourite shady tree, hang it over a branch, and keep a small trickle of water flowing into a ceramic water bottle which overflows into the sand. The hens like to stand on the wet sand in the shade and sip the water. They dig holes where it's dry, maybe 30cm away, and just sit in them. My guess is that it keeps their legs and bellies cool while keeping their feathers dry. Through evaporation, the small trickle of water cools the air around the ceramic drinker and the hens stay cool with their legs and feet in the cool sand and their faces within the cool air from the trickle of water. They don't even pant after an hour. Sometimes they wander off to forage, overheat and come back again to cool down.

However, this might not work where you live. Every place is different and I have never been where you live. We just have to continue observing our environment and being creative in our responses to it Remember all online advice is situated in real places and may or may not translate to our own flocks. These days i don't even ask for help from people - sadly, I find a team of AIs to be more helpful.

Anyway. I must get back to sleep.It's 3am.

 

[Ribh]

I’m trying to remember what I was doing in last summer’s heatwave (it’s 7°/-14°C here this morning .)

One huge success was partially burying a large rectangular plastic Rubbermaid tub in the soil and filling it with water from the garden hose to belly depth. A few submerged bricks allowed them to first cool their legs before getting up their nerve to go all in. Heavily panting pullets cooled off within minutes.


A second was having a shade cloth-covered area for deep dust bathing. 8-10 cm down, the soil was appreciably cooler than the air and the surface soil.

The final partial success was using small clip-on camping fans to keep a breeze blowing on them. The ones I bought had rechargeable batteries, had four speeds, and oscillated so that there wasn’t just an endless blast of air. The “partial” success was because the Buff Orp noped right on out, suspicious of the little black whirring things.

I hope the heat breaks for you and your ladies soon!

View attachment 4289455

https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Rec...-Essentials/dp/B0DWMHY6V1/ref=ast_sto_dp_puis

lol @MaryJanet is right about our heat. It is humid. You should see the depth of the ladies dustbathing holes! Most of their run is in dappled shade & they have a shallow water container they can stand in but the heat is relentless. I have mostly frizzles. The unfrizzleds do better in the heat. We have rain due, which will break the heat but not the humidity.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

lol @MaryJanet is right about our heat. It is humid. You should see the depth of the ladies dustbathing holes! Most of their run is in dabbled shade & they have a shallow water container they can stand in but the heat is relentless. I have mostly frizzles. The unfrizzleds do better in the heat. We have rain due, which will break the heat but not the humidity.

I was lucky enough to visit Australia (and NZ) one August in the late 60's as a teen, 15 or 16. Learned to ski in NZ (living in Hawai'i, I had to grab any chance I could!) and then we went to Australia, but only in the general Canberra-Sydney area plus a side trip to Alice Springs. Don't know why we included Alice Springs, although I suspect that I had read "A Town Like Alice" during my first Nevil Shute obsession, and that did it. I never made it to Adelaide or anywhere else, really. Flying space-available on US Air Force transport in the '60's did limit choices!

I would have guessed that South Australia and Victoria would have been a bit gentler in terms of heat than the rest of the country, but obviously not. I used to live in Houston TX, plus visited New Orleans in late spring for the humid equivalent - oh, and Cuba, holy cow, and I've been in Arizona in July for dry, and I know that I couldn't handle either!

I hope your chickens (and you) get through this weather well! As someone who lived through a murderous hurricane/ tropical cyclone hundreds of miles from salt water a bit over a year ago, these are some scary times.

 

[Ribh]

I would have guessed that South Australia and Victoria would have been a bit gentler in terms of heat than the rest of the country, but obviously not.

Actually S.A & Victoria get some of the most extreme heat & Victoria is burning to the ground just now. Where I am all the rivers are flooding from the last cyclone & another seems to be forming. It's buckle in for the ride down under.

As someone who lived through a murderous hurricane/ tropical cyclone hundreds of miles from salt water a bit over a year ago

Yeah, I've done a couple of cyclones & my boys did a couple off the W.A coast when trawling. Harbours drop the booms & if you miss it you ride it out @ sea. One of my lads got caught between 2. Not fun. While I am in the cyclone zone I am inland & high so most of the worst of these will miss me & the girls.

 

[MaryJanet]

Today the chicks have decided my seat on the bag of woodshavings is the best seat in the house.

They're right of course.

Top to bottom are Hilda, Nelly, then Martha on the left and Nancy in the right.

Earlier I had the special reward of a chick on each knee. Hilda hopped up to my left knee and Nancy to my right. Naturally my phone was at the other end of the house..

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Actually S.A & Victoria get some of the most extreme heat & Victoria is burning to the ground just now. Where I am all the rivers are flooding from the last cyclone & another seems to be forming. It's buckle in for the ride down under.

Yeah, I've done a couple of cyclones & my boys did a couple off the W.A coast when trawling. Harbours drop the booms & if you miss it you ride it out @ sea. One of my lads got caught between 2. Not fun. While I am in the cyclone zone I am inland & high so most of the worst of these will miss me & the girls.

I realize that "" is a pretty odd reaction, but I'm sending love your way. Hang in there.

 

[MaryJanet]

I was lucky enough to visit Australia (and NZ) one August in the late 60's as a teen, 15 or 16. Learned to ski in NZ (living in Hawai'i, I had to grab any chance I could!) and then we went to Australia, but only in the general Canberra-Sydney area plus a side trip to Alice Springs. Don't know why we included Alice Springs, although I suspect that I had read "A Town Like Alice" during my first Nevil Shute obsession, and that did it. I never made it to Adelaide or anywhere else, really. Flying space-available on US Air Force transport in the '60's did limit choices!

I would have guessed that South Australia and Victoria would have been a bit gentler in terms of heat than the rest of the country, but obviously not. I used to live in Houston TX, plus visited New Orleans in late spring for the humid equivalent - oh, and Cuba, holy cow, and I've been in Arizona in July for dry, and I know that I couldn't handle either!

I hope your chickens (and you) get through this weather well! As someone who lived through a murderous hurricane/ tropical cyclone hundreds of miles from salt water a bit over a year ago, these are some scary times.

That's a lot of travel! More than most folks. I've only been to LA, Las Vegas, San Francisco and the Grand Canyon in the US. The weather was mostly lovely for the 10 days I was there, perfect for a flock. But no doubt it's challenging in other seasons.

 

[MaryJanet]

I realize that "" is a pretty odd reaction, but I'm sending love your way. Hang in there.

Fires and rains. That's Australia. There's a poem that goes

I love a sunburnt country.
A land of sweeping plains.
Of rugged mountain ranges.
Of drought and flooding rains.

It has other stanzas too, but that one always comes to mind. It's called My Country and it was written by Dorothea Mackellar.