Surviving Minnesota!

[lvie]

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EJB3810 and Ralphie are picking on Layers.

 

[duluthralphie]

EJB3810 and Ralphie are picking on Layers.

NO were not!!!!!




Saint B: The chicks were 4 and 10 days old. The 4 day old could be anything, it happens. As I have said before the white sports are not the "toughest chicks in the brooder". One of my challenges will be adding vigor to them. I feel bad when they die but being as inbred as they are, I prefer it happen young and not give me weak chicks next year.

I will be breeding cousins back in next year one some, which while it is like going to a family reunion to find a mate. It is better than marrying your sibling. The gene pool for CLB's is just not that deep period. The starting point was not that long ago and here in America they all came from the same source.

The 10 day old was definitely from the heat. It could be a draft that got it, or it got a chill. I turned the heat lamp off on them around 9am. Right or wrong, I did it. I figured leaving it one would have been worse. I did not have a large pen they could get away from the heat in. I am not even sure that would have worked. I have 7 big pens set up, 4 small pens in the brooder shed. I have every pen I own in use, I have 4-5 outside. Moving them outside seemed a poor choice too.

I just did not have a lot of choices. I did go out and check temps it was down to 85 in the shed but I was getting a pretty good breeze with the doors open, so I shut them. I hope that was the right thing to do.

It is kind of like winter all over, you make the best choice you can and hope it is correct. I was most worried about the Bert family. I am happy to report they all came through the first day of heat.

They did hang out under the mister most the day.







And this has nothing to do with chickens, but here is a helicopter of the same model (almost) that I got my rotorcraft license in.....



This is a Bell 47G2 I learned in a 47G, that was not nearly as pretty....Yeah that's how I am,,,sigh,,, This was taken at an "classic Aircraft" show I went to the other day.

 

[Cluckies]

I wrote a hole thing, photo and everything. It got hung up, and lost, stupid phone. Sorry about your losses Ralphie. I didn't have any, but the ladies were suffering. We'll see what today brings. I was stuck in the henouse with then today at 4:15am due to lightening. Regretted leaving their winows wide open. I never learn. They were so hot though. 3 fans going, 2 directly over their heads blowing on the roost. Hot. Try and stay cool every one!

 

[Minniechickmama]

We are impatiently awaiting the wild plums this year too....not sure what kind but every couple of years they will produce a good crop of small plums. Secret location at the back of our field that takes a 4 wheeler to get to but Mmmmmm so worth the wait. They make wonderful Jams and Jellies tooo. Now my mouth is watering in anticipation.

Probably American Plum which is a wild type of plum tree. We actually planted some at our farm a few years ago, but they are messy to keep around with all their suckers coming up. So, now we have two by the road end of our property that my husband keeps pruned very nicely and they produce small ones. I keep wanting to make plum jelly with them, but have not gotten around to it yet. Maybe this year, they usually come on at the end of August, I think.

 

[jerryse]

Morning . Another hot one today . I may have stayed out too much yesterday . Feel a little off today . Probably the heat .I spent awhile getting the belt back on my old woods mower . Mowed some until it got too dark .

 

[MNChickMom]

Probably American Plum which is a wild type of plum tree. We actually planted some at our farm a few years ago, but they are messy to keep around with all their suckers coming up. So, now we have two by the road end of our property that my husband keeps pruned very nicely and they produce small ones. I keep wanting to make plum jelly with them, but have not gotten around to it yet. Maybe this year, they usually come on at the end of August, I think.

Late August is about when ours are ready. We inherited them with the property so I don't know what kind.....but yes the suckers are crazy. Thank you for the name....this has jump started my curiosity about them.

 

[duluthralphie]

Probably American Plum which is a wild type of plum tree. We actually planted some at our farm a few years ago, but they are messy to keep around with all their suckers coming up. So, now we have two by the road end of our property that my husband keeps pruned very nicely and they produce small ones. I keep wanting to make plum jelly with them, but have not gotten around to it yet. Maybe this year, they usually come on at the end of August, I think.

I think those must be what I have too, but they are dirty looking trees and have a fungus of some kind on them. I have thought about pulling them out. I would like to plant some plums or apricots in my new orchard area. I am not aware of suckers, but will go look. my Mom has a tendency to run over everything regardless of size with the mower so they could be there and just get wiped out. She would run over a 6 ft tree if it was new. I think she has vision problems, she does not think she does....


I hope you guys up north did OK with last nights weather, Hopefully we will hear from you soon.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

2 of the 3 roads coming into town had trees down across highways. DH (on the Fire Dept) got the call from Dispatch after the storm blew through at 3:30 for all Firemen to start clearing roads for service vehicles. DH in his knee brace is not allowed on calls. So he laid awake watching texts of downed trees and power lines. Power went out at 3:30 and back on at 7:00 this morning. Thank goodness as we'd have a mess with this heat/fridges/freezers. We have another big Popple down...but it's in this loop of clover that DH has cut through the woods for the deer. So not in the way of my John Deere.

Got 'er all mowed up Tuesday night though.

100 year old trees down in old homestead lawns though, across a strip of homes 3 out of 4 homes on the way out of town with huge white pines in garages or laying on roofs. It's a mess out there in my little town.

Erli how are you doing?..I saw on the radar a red/purple swath of nastiness heading your way after us...kind of a beastly looking tail of the storm. I hope you are well.

My coop is thankfully in a shaded spot...and this morning I unfortunately left the windows open. If I would have closed it up I'm sure I would have kept the heat out. I've got that reflectix lining/insulating the walls now too. Shoot.

 

[I Love Layers]

Good morning or afternoon everyone!

Pretty hot out there today, I let the birds out then went yo go grab feed for them, only to find that my mom got cracked corn not whole corn! And she mixed the cracked corn and layer feed together!! Even after I told her not to touch the feed.

So I will be feeding that for a while...

After I fed the birds in the shade of some trees I filled up a bucket of water and sat and watched them, Maya our LGD came down and sat by me.
After a few minutes a bald eagle showed up, the birds saw it but it wasn't close enough for a threat.
I had to go fill up the sled and metal waterer, so I had Maya sit by the chickens.
Then I went to go see Stella and Dakota, they were in the barn. While I was in there I swear I heard chick peeping so I looked around the barn but I didn't see anything.

Then I and counted eggs in the layer, only 10 from yesterday and today so far. So I went to another barn, there were 3 EE eggs there and there were 3 underneath a rabbit hutch.

 

[Siggie]

Good afternoon all! Duluth got hit pretty bad last night, the cops advised not travel this morning through town. Further north by me we got a lot of rain, thunder and lightening and some winds but nothing too terrible. I am sitting in a little vortex....protected by some pretty tall hills so in summer the bad weather kind of skirts around us and in the winter the snow just dumps on us.... so opposite effect in winter. 84 and very breezy today...chickens seem to be fairing pretty well so far. the ground is saturated so they just lay in the trees on the cool wet ground and nibble on grass around them..

ralphie, sorry to hear about your losses. I am so glad it only gets hot up here occasionally. So far we are lucky enough to be above that excessive heat line they are talking about.....I HATE heat.