Heat Wave!!

[The Mama Chicken]

It's miserable here in Texas too.We hit 108 on Wednesday. Then 103 yesterday. I was also hoping for some quality time with Debby, but she decided to head to Florida instead of Texas.

 

[curly_kate]

Retired, I was hoping the same thing about Debby! I think the Midwest would happily take some of that flood from Florida!

 

[ducks4you]

I, too, changed out my 250 watt bulb in the barn, on top of the brooder with the almost 2 week old chicks, for a 60 watt bulb. I gave them and all of flock(s) additional water this morning. I soaked my garden beds and patted myself on the back that I filled my beds with multicultures, which dry out a little slower. I filled my horse tank last night, and cleaned out their shelter Monday night, so it's dry and smells nicely bedded.
My tomatoes are lovin' the heat. I have 10 cherries that I avoided picking last night to wait for this weekend.
PLEASE, take it easy from about 4 PM to 9 PM, when the heat is the worst. I'm sitting in the AC today. I'm afraid this heat is gonna do in my peas.

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

I hope all of you get rain that need it. Cool the temps down, nurish the ground and everything else that goes with it. We had a heat wave here last week. Supposed to be very hot for us over the weekend through the begining of the week. Don't know that we will hit heat wave requirements again. But 90+ anyhow. I consider myself blessed to live in New England. Yes, in the winter we can get hammered with snow and it is a pain. But you can shovel that. You can't shovel heat and drought. Hopefully some storms will come through in a good way and make things a bit more comfortable for ya'll.

 

[retiredwith4acres]

Desertlady, I know our temps don't sound bad to you, but we are not used to it and our plants are not accustomed to it either. lol My son is a cooperate airplane pilot and was out west the first of the week and had to wait 5 hours in Denver before being able to take off because it was too hot. And that was in Denver! Can't imagine what you deal with.

We watered late last night also, have the mister on the chickens right now (they ran to get under it when we turned it on), and will wait until sundown to water a little more before bedtime. I have a broody on eggs and she ran under the mist as soon as we turned it on but was right back on those eggs in just a few minutes. Guess she didn't realize the eggs would be fine without her sitting on them today, unless they got too hot.

We have no rain in the forecast for 10 days anyway. Everything will be dried up, our yard goes crunch now. We can't afford to water it (big yard) and the garden so it will be sacrificed.

Prayers for rain for all that need it. At least we don't have the fires yet to go with our heat or haven't lost everything in floods. We can always find something to be thankful for if we look.

 

[vfem]

Not looking forward to this at all!

I already have the sprinkler on the chickens to get them through this. Vitamins and electrolytes are going in their water and then all I can do is cross my fingers! :/

 

[cityfarmer]

Same here in Colorado. In the Springs we hit an all time ever record high of 101 on Tuesday since records have been kept. Last week we had over 95 degree temps several days. Last Friday, Saturday, Sunday it hit 100 degrees (for the 4th, 5th, and 6th times ever in recorded history) and Monday was a cool 98. The next 7 days show temps in the low to mid 90's which is a much more typical heat wave for us. We are approximately 5 inches below normal for precipitation for the year and last year we only received 19% of normal precipitation. Monsoon moisture is trying to work its way in, but the chances in the next seven days are slim with the thunderstorms we get being dry thunderstorms. While we don't have the humidity to make the feel like index go up, our low humidity is terrible for the fires. In May, I saw more grasshoppers in my yard than I have ever seen. Luckily, they went to greener pastures I think. I absolutely dread my next utility bill. Because of the high temps, we have been watering daily sometimes twice. Due to the high temps, our AC (thankful that we have one because many people in the city don't because it generally cools off at night) has been running full time and with all the smoke in the air we aren't opening windows to gain the cool night air. I actually think I would welcome a hail storm right now. :/ The poor chickens are panting especially our girl who believes anything above 40 degrees is hot. We have tried frozen water in milk jugs and they run away. We have been watering down the dirt in the shady areas in the run with ice water to help them cool down. They refuse to lay in it. I guess they will just take care of themselves. They do like "frozen" fruit in the afternoons and are getting plenty of fresh cool water.

 

[desertlady]

Same here in Colorado. In the Springs we hit an all time ever record high of 101 on Tuesday since records have been kept. Last week we had over 95 degree temps several days. Last Friday, Saturday, Sunday it hit 100 degrees (for the 4th, 5th, and 6th times ever in recorded history) and Monday was a cool 98. The next 7 days show temps in the low to mid 90's which is a much more typical heat wave for us. We are approximately 5 inches below normal for precipitation for the year and last year we only received 19% of normal precipitation. Monsoon moisture is trying to work its way in, but the chances in the next seven days are slim with the thunderstorms we get being dry thunderstorms. While we don't have the humidity to make the feel like index go up, our low humidity is terrible for the fires. In May, I saw more grasshoppers in my yard than I have ever seen. Luckily, they went to greener pastures I think. I absolutely dread my next utility bill. Because of the high temps, we have been watering daily sometimes twice. Due to the high temps, our AC (thankful that we have one because many people in the city don't because it generally cools off at night) has been running full time and with all the smoke in the air we aren't opening windows to gain the cool night air. I actually think I would welcome a hail storm right now. :/ The poor chickens are panting especially our girl who believes anything above 40 degrees is hot. We have tried frozen water in milk jugs and they run away. We have been watering down the dirt in the shady areas in the run with ice water to help them cool down. They refuse to lay in it. I guess they will just take care of themselves. They do like "frozen" fruit in the afternoons and are getting plenty of fresh cool water.

I used cat litter box ( cheap flat ones) as a swimming pool for my chickies ! They love to soak their feet in that box !

 

[curly_kate]

One thing I'm happy to report is that covering our south facing windows with cardboard has kept the ac from running constantly. During the hottest part of the dayut still does, but at least it gets a break at other times.

 

[retiredwith4acres]

Well, Tennessee broke ALL TIME temperature record today of 109 degrees in Nashville and we had 104.5 at my house, a little higher elevation.