Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Summer Heat

My car, fifteen minutes ago: 


After two miles, it adjusted itself to 103, and stayed there. 

I have a fan running in both henhouses... I turned them off last night to give the motors a break, but turned both on early this morning. 

I did water in the old henhouse yards at 1:30... and am going out again in a few minutes. 


There is enough shade in there that the birds are not too badly off.  
You notice these little guys are hanging out in there too. 
They like chicken feed... so I just ran down to get them Purina Goat Chow.  I was trying to get them to eat an all stock feed, but I realize they really like the pellets. 

I want to encourage them to eat and stop nursing. 


Here is a trick I use for the waterers.  Those are water bottles we have used and refilled and frozen.  I put them in the waterers to make sure the water stays good and cold. 


I had just refilled the waterer with cold water and ice bottles, and the gallon you see on the floor 
is also frozen.  Once the hens realize there is cold air there, they'll get closer to it. 


This poor girl, Folly, will not come down from the rafters or the top of the nest box.  She was really hot, and panting.  I put cold bottles in their waterer, and there is a cold bottle on it's side up on the nest box.  If they stand near it, they will feel the colder air. 

I'm about to go out and put some bottles in the waterers in the big henhouse, but their side is considerably cooler because of the all the trees. 

When the henspa was roofed last fall, the vents were not put in. The roofer told us he would come back and do it, but never has.  We are trying to reach someone now to have the vents put in for relief in this henhouse, that was built very tightly.  I do have the side door propped wide open, to allow air flow through the house. 
I wish this hen in the picture above, a porcelain D'Uccle, would get with the program and come down with the others.  The rooster does, though he is up there today. 

A word of caution about using the frozen water bottles... be sure to clean them off thoroughly before putting them back in your freezer to re-freeze, so you don't introduce bacteria, especially the ones you use on the floors. 


Ditto. 


I have cut a little grass today, but summer is really, truly, here! 


13 comments:

  1. OMPUG I could feel the heat just from your post, I always remind butch when he takes the pugs with him, not to take them on hot days no matter how the air conditioning is!! i am so thankful for our central air. I also freeze water for the pugs bowls everyday.
    stella rose's mom

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  2. You are such a good chicken momma to put out all those frozen water bottles.

    I think I'll be doing some sewing and crafting on my days off next thurs, fri, sat and sun. I believe it's going to be way to hot to do much outside.

    Take care

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  3. I live in the desert of Southern California, near Palm Springs, and it will be (maybe...) 117 here this weekend. I'm going to try the frozen water bottle trick for my dogs. We do keep them inside when it is that hot, but I'm afraid we are in for a VERY hot summer this year! :-)
    ~~Cheryl Ann~~

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  4. It was a scorcher here today, too. I had to go get some groceries and my car said 102 degrees, then it cooled off to 99. It felt very bit of 100 plus degrees to me! Your poor chickens are feeling the heat, but you are so good to give them the frozen bottles to help cool down. I've never heard of anyone doing that before.
    Take care and stay cool!

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  5. If you put an ice cube on the sensor head, the temperature will come down. Not really, but you will feel better about it! :-}

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  6. It's not that hot here but 98 today so that's hot enough ! Stay cool friend !

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  7. Hearing about your heat there makes me a little ashamed to complain about the high 80 degree days we've had with a few in the 90's. It's unusually hot for us in June. We don't see heat like this till August most of the time. Good idea to freeze those water bottles. Hope all your critters can find a shady spot to keep cool in. I think I'm very spoiled and stay in the air conditioning when I can.

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  8. Yikes that is hot ! Hope it cools off for the chickens and you !

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  9. My goodness that's too hot for man or beast! I hope it is better soon. I saw on the news this morning that cooler temps were heading our way this weekend so maybe where you are too. I just got through reading back through your posts that I've missed in a week of being MIA and see that I've missed a lot there with you and the animals. Turn my back a little and you've accomplished so much!

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  10. I will use the idea about the ice bottles in the water. I never thought of that. I have the bunnies but never the chickens. We have a 110 day on Sunday so I was trying to think how to keep them cool.
    I think the hardest thing about heat is trying to keep my animals alive. I never noticed when I didn't have animals.

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  11. Oh my - I feel so sorry for you and your girls!

    Stay cool my friend!

    xo

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  12. I love your frozen bottle idea, we could use that idea in the coming summer with our hens! Guess what Mary Ann, our goat Honey finally had her kids , they were triplets!! No wonder they took so long ! Have been enjoying watching your baby goats on the blog. while I was waiting for ours to be born.

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