Oregon

[aggiemae]

Yesterday at 5:30 am I was in the kitchen grabbing hen snacks befor I opened the coop and from the corner of my eye I thought I thought a pullet in my front yard. I looked out the windown more closely and saw that there were two, then three... I went out as quietly as I could and they were all over my lawn mostly eating the fallen blueberries... The mama walked up the sidewalk...defiantly NOT a chicken... and called to the chicks, there were 9 of them! Still couldn't figure out what they were but then I saw another one, an adult male, a few houses up . They were wild turkeys just walking up my street. We have marmots and coyotes and heron and deer and the usual raccoon and possums and once in a while we spot a cougar on the grounds of out abandoned "state hospital" (Fairview). It was pretty cool. My son made a video on his phone I'll ask him to post it later.

It' was 106 degrees in my yard yesterday. I moved some plants into the greenhouse because it was only a few degrees warmer but at least they are protected from the direct sun. My eggplants in pots are over 3 feet tall and most have at least three eggplants on them. I'm never going to grow them in the ground again. My hens spent the hottest days sitting in holed they dig in the soil under our laurel hedges. I am going to full up their wading pool today I got up to do my yard work early. I started a big batch of cold brewed coffee and plant on spending the hot part of the hay in the pool. .

Hope everyone has a wonderful day.

 

[Gypsyhen]

Hi Aggiemae, I live not far from you I'd guess. We are on Battle Creek south of Kuebler. About 6 mo. ago we had wild turkeys wander through our place. We get the other critters too. There is a cougar that passes through, but not often that we see. Neighbors usually notify one another if they see it or their farm animals are killed. They cover a big territory, so could be the same one you see.

It is going to be so HOT today. Our 7 chickens are in a big run, so I keep busy trying to keep them cool with misters, a big fan, watermelon and a frozen water filled milk jug in their water bucket. I feed them greens that have lots of water in them too.

 

[meowoui]

Hi Gypsyhen,

I have a solution for you in the heat department keeping your chickens cool. Take a Styrofoam cooler, small fan, two pvc pipe elbows or
dryer vent hoses, take the three items draw circles around each one on the top of the cooler top, cut out the holes of each one make sure that
you cut inside the circle of the fan hole so the fan will fit snuggly. Now take fill with ice plug in fan out blows cool air, we tried it last night in the
coop at midnight my husband went and checked on the hens and the coop was at 78 instead of the 80's.
So that you don't keep buying bags of ice take jugs fill with water freeze.
Here in Beaverton/Aloha yesterday it was 101 today it is suppose to get to 103.

Karen

 

[Stephanie R]

Oh my gosh, your cat looks like mine that just passed away (except for the nose color). Mine was a Ragdoll named Sam. Miss that guy.

 

[Gypsyhen]

Fantastic idea Meowoui. Thank you! We have a tree nursery, so usually have pvc. We have a styro cooler and I've been freezing milk jugs of water to put in their hanging water bucket. I'll see if I can recruit my husband to help me with this.

 

[OR4-hmom]

103° sounds good to me, 109° at 2:30 when I got off work today. Yesterday was 107°.

 

[meowoui]

ick, poor chickens and us humans

 

[meowoui]

I'm sorry to hear about sam's passing on.

 

[aggiemae]

Quote: We are north of Kubler right off Pringle. Our pool was 82 degrees today without the heater. It was 76 degrees the day before yesterday. Doing the same for our chickens. They have a small wading pool too. I put an inch of water in it and the walk around in it lots during the day though it's a mud pit by evening.

 

[meowoui]

Hi Aggiemae,

Your chickens are pretty smart if they stayed in the hole all day, our hens just walk around all day with their wings out and beaks open, there are areas of shade
but they seem to only go under the shade when the weather is a lot cooler.

I get up early everyday to water the gardens no matter what the weather is like.

Keep cool

Karen