Sdwd

[kathyinmo]

Hope you are all drinking lots of water. Take care of yourself in this heat!

Today I am shuffling around, a never ending job here. I have 4 pens of grow-outs, besides the brooders. Around 200 chicks (half are Delawares). I have one pen of 20 broody hens. Yes, 20 of them. I made a one minute video of them, just to hear their practice, "cluck cluck, come here baby," practice chirps. 20 of them doing that is musical, don't ya think?

My "wasted," pen space:
4 - grow outs
2 - roosters
1 - meaties (6 more weeks til processing)
1 - Broody hens
1 - Emus (because I still don't have their fencing up).

Time to go outside and start organizing a cull pen or two..........

 

[crazyhen]

I hate this weather~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Too hot for anything. How do the people out west bare it? My hens and young ones seem to be doing fine. They have two buckets of water each and a fan. They prefer the out of doors until lunch then run in. ME TOO!
I am sitting here reading about your shuffling hens about. I am thinking where in the world I am going to put my new babies. One wheaten and one Blue wheaten from the eggs from peachick. I am surprised I got any after the postal mess they went through.

I have the three from Cari that are 5 weeks old but these are too tiny for there. I guess I will have to keep them until I move the 12 week olds.

More time to play with them since there are only two. Then I will put them on my back porch for awhile Etc. Lets see, I need more 2x2's to build a little grow out box and run on the porch and wire, and and.

I bet those emus are getting hugh by now. WHAT are you going to do with them?

 

[kathyinmo]

Yes, Fred and Wilma are growing well. We have to get that fence put in. Just so dang hot. I don't know why we have waited so long. Mike was gonna do it, but I think we should hire it done.

Sweat is just dripping off me, and it is only 90° here at 10AM. I never used to even hardly sweat - not like this anyway. I could not live in Arizona. Well, I wouldn't want to anyway. I am not about to install air conditioning for my chickens.

I got my 10 day-olds out of the house. They should have been out days ago. Now I have 2 day-olds and chicks hatching today. I have empty brooders in the storage garage for them. I usually only keep them inside until they are 3 days old. I don't like the dust.

Hoping to move out the sold ones tomorrow.

That will free up some space. Many rooster chicks going, too!

 

[halo]

I never thought Id say Im grateful to be in Florida in the summertime, but I am. Mid 90's this week with a breeze. Might sneak over to the beach tomorrow or Monday for a dip.

I remember one summer several years ago when we got into the 100's for days on end. Twas miserable. At least here we always seem to have a breeze, courtesy of being so flat and close to the ocean.

 

[seminolewind]

Well DH and I constructed the military chicken compound this morning and everyone is in day pens and such with fans and ice water and inside the compound...now I patrol with ice and pray.







Well I am going back at it....ice has melted and time to change it again....I refuse to lose birds in this heat like last year dang it.

Cetawin, that's hysterical!!! It just shows how far people will go to save their chickens!
I guess the lucky thing in Florida here, is that it rarely goes over 90, sometimes in the low 90's.

 

[seminolewind]

Rain? We had a tropical storm go thru last week and dumped 15 inches or more of rain in 3-4 days. Houses under water, pastures under water, main streets closed, sink holes, we've never seen that much rain ever. My parent's patio was under an inch of water, and that's not too bad, considering what others had.

I lost a few more 14 week olds from opportunistic bacteria and a lowered immune system from Marek's. And they all come from the same vaccine that was mixed.

Over 100 degrees outside of Florida is really rough. No one or animal is used to it, and it's just more stress.

 

[speckledhen]

I'm so afraid someone will die tonight in the coop. Ike and Amanda, especially, look so pitiful.


Got a reassessment tax notice. They now say my extra 3.15 acres I'm logging is worth 5 times more than it was last year. FIVE TIMES??? In this economy??? No stinking way. They are raising the taxes just on that unimproved parcel by $300/year! And the house taxes are going up by $150, which they already did once a couple of years ago when they stole the homestead exemption away from us.

We are going to appeal this one, you just bet on it. I've already emailed my realtor who sold us the house and wrote the contract for the acreage we bought a year later, to ask her what the heck is going on in this county. She says she knows a man who is looking for a place to park his RV and he may be interested in the bottom lot--she won't be taking any commission, just putting us together, if he has any interest, but dang. I'm so sick of being in survival mode, just out of reach of peace of mind.

 

[Cetawin]

Seminolewind what area of Florida are you in...I spent 37 year in South Florida and remember Christmas at near 90. LOL

Today was not as bad as.predicted...high heat index was only 109. So the 111-112 from yesterday dis nor make it. We actually had a breezy morning so the heat did not really hit till just before noon.

So far the chicken compound is working. I did clean out the garage so my backup area is ready...I will be dammmmned if I am losing a bunch of birds this summer. No way, I won't have it.

 

[speckledhen]

If I had a barn to put all the crap in, I could put all the birds in the stand-up crawl space that runs under my bedroom and kitchen. It has a dry dirt floor and stays cool in there.

 

[kathyinmo]

Fingers crossed that all of our chickens live through this heat wave.

I hatched some cute chicks from my Lavender pen. Lav Amer rooster, hens: Lav Amer, Black Amer, and Miss Olive (blue Olive Egger). I grabbed a few of them out of the brooder for a photo shoot.