Heat and chickens are not a good combination. And it was really hot today. I have some Cornish cross that I am raising for meat birds. They do not tolerate the heat well at all. They have a really high metabolism and create a lot of body heat. I have 2 fans on them all the time. I had to be gone this afternoon to take Gene, my friend, to speech therapy. When I got home it was quite late and the guys had not been home yet because I had ask them to go pick up a truck load of oat straw to use for bedding and mulch. I checked on the birds and had 2 dead and 4 more not doing well at all. I got the water tank filled and added the vitamin/electrolyte solution to it and forced them to take drink. I might save 2 or 3 of those. Dang I hate losing birds like that. But such is life on the farm. I will add another water tank in the building tomorrow to make sure they have plenty of water. I should have known this would be a problem as I have had it happen before.
We have had another 100 degree day here. With high humidity. Kinda been a yucky day all the way around. I learned today that one of my classmates was dead when he was taken by some friends to the hospital. Not sure of the details but I really feel bad for his family. Then when I took Gene to therapy he tole me he wasn't feeling well and this really concerned me because we are taking him to therapy because he had a stroke. I kinda insisted that he go to the ER after his therapy and he did. They did another CT scan to make sure he wasn't having another stroke. Good news is he was not having a stroke. The ER doc seems to think it is where his brain is healing from the stroke and the nerve pathways are re-routing that is causing these symptoms. He said it kinda freaked him out when all of a sudden he could feel heat on his right side and before today it alas felt cold to him. We think this is a good thing. Needless to say I was so relieved to know he was OK.
I have not done anything here on the farm today other than check on my chicken and feed Slinky's babies. They are big enough to eat canned cat food now. So I put a can on a plate and gave it to them. They sounded like lil pigs eatin slop. The 5 of em cleaned the plate. They are so cute.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
5 comments:
Sorry to hear about your chickens. Ours have slowed WAY down on their egg laying. In the winter it's too cold, in the summer, it's too hot. Now tell me why do I keep chickens again? lol.
It's amazing what the brain can do. I'm sure we don't even know half of it. I'm glad it was good news.
Hi farm girl, my poor lil chickens have to be confined as they are small yet and the breed, cornish cross, have such high metabalism thus more body heat they just cant stand the temps this high. And there was the lack of water issue, which made me feel just awful, but it couldnt be helped. Hope today is better for them. My layers have done fine, they are dark cornish, even hot or cold weather. Les face it, we jus like the challenge of keepin birds. lol
Are they small enough to bring indoors? Maybe set up in a basement or closet?
Poor little things. :(
Hi mary, they are cornish cross and at 3 weeks old they will prolly weigh better than 1 lb each. I was thrilled this morning to find that the 3 that were really bad and I expected to find dead this morning were up and goin. Then I felt bad that i had dunked one in the rain barrel to cool em off, but it saved em. They are all fine now. I added an extra water tank today, as long as they have lots a water they do ok
glad to hear they are doing good. We raised some of these in the spring. Want to do more, but think we will wait until fall for them.
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