Monday, December 27, 2010

Hot Day, No Water...Dead Chook.

I didn't think that it was that hot here today but it was hot enough for me to go swimming in the dam a few times so hot but not unbearable.  It was hot enough for me to want to put sprinklers on in the chook pens but I couldn't as we had no water.

The weather report said that it was 40 in Perth.  It wasn't that hot here though, maybe 33-35.  One day I will buy a thermometer, it won't make any difference knowing how hot it is but it will be interesting to know.  I sometimes am surprised that it has been as hot as people say when I haven't felt that hot yet other times I am sweltering and it hasn't even reached 30. 

Even though I didn't think that it was too hot it was still quite warm and this afternoon we found that one of our old chooks had died.  It may not have been because of the heat, it could have been an age thing, being able to have the sprinklers on may not have made any difference.  But I am blaming the heat.  I know that the chooks don't like it when it is too hot.  All pens have water and shade so apart from making sure the water is topped up, by bucket if necessary, there is not much else I can do when it is hot and no water comes through the pipes. 

So one less Isa Brown chook.  We are down to 7 now, soon they will all be gone.
There weren't any problems with any of the other chooks but we didn't get many eggs from any pens.
They don't lay when it is cold, they don't lay when it is hot...
Cooler weather coming up over the next few days, that should keep the rest of them happy.

7 comments:

  1. Hi Barb,
    Really enjoy reading your blog. Where are you? I live in Capel, didnt realise you were so close! Most of the blogs I follow are from the east. I am on a farm and enjoy my gardens and chooks as well, so can relate to your posts :-)
    Katie

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  2. Hi Katie, yes not that far away. We are in the Peel Region, between Pinjarra and Harvey. (I've been told not to give the town name away on here but I'm sure any body could easily work it out if they wanted to and I have probably written it somewhere...lol.)
    Thanks for the kind words.

    Barb.

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  3. Barb, so sorry for the dead chicken. Some days last summer, I worried they might die.They had shade in the pen and water. But, they wanted out in the grass. Even when I let them out, their wings were out from there bodies and their mouths were open. I worried. I thought of a sprinkler but was not sure if they would like it or not. When it rains, they head for cover and act all offended.

    If you want to talk to Katie and give her more info, you could talk through email. But, you are safe from me since I am on a different continent. I think people who live in large cities feel safer than those who live in really small towns or in the country. I accidentally posted my home address to a large group instead of sending a private email like I meant to do. So far, so good.

    We had our first White Christmas ever and you are south of the equator with hens dying in the heat! I am freezing. You are at 35C=95F and I am at 18F=-7.7C....big difference!

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  4. Oh I see :-) Nice up that way!
    Katie

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  5. Practical Parsimony is not critizing Linda's spelling because Linda IS Practical Parsimony and she was correcting herself.Was that confusing or what?

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