Meant to hit publish on this post days ago, so please humor me and just pretend it's last Friday and you are wilting in the heat wave...
Good news and bad news on the farm today. Day two of some serious heat, and I hurried home from the office, worried about the animals. I left the horses in their stalls this morning, with fans running and extra water buckets. Made sure the chickens would have shade all day, and plenty of water. Yet I came home to two of my four meat birds dead. The two roosters, noticeably bigger than the hens, just couldn't take the heat, so they opted out of the kitchen they were destined for.
I've been meaning to write a post about these birds, now eight weeks old. They were/are due to go to the processor tomorrow, having reached their harvest weight already. I am sorry for their sake that they succumbed to heat, and sorry for mine that I had to throw away two enormous roasting birds that would have provided me with enough meat for many meals. These are frankenbirds, no joke. They have spent the past eight weeks sitting in a circle around the feeder, gaining weight around the clock and only moving as far as the water fount. Very freaky, even when they do move they walk funny, heaving their whole body form side to side to shuffle their legs. I hated watching it, and hated it more when they didn't move. These birds on a factory farm would spend their entire lives in a space smaller than an 8.5x11 sheet of paper, so I guess they had it pretty good between my big brooder box and then the outdoor chicken tractor, moved to fresh grass every day, and always shaded from the sun. But it still really sucks to lose half of the first meat crop to come from this farm. Hopefully the remaining two hens make it through the next 24 hours of continued heat.
The good news is that my flock of hens have started laying eggs! I found the first batch of their teeny little pullet eggs today, there were 15 from 7 hens so they must've started a few days ago, a bit ahead of schedule. I can't eat these, I don't know how long they were out there for, but every day form now on I'll have my own fresh eggs! Such good girls :) They are lounging in the shade but still be-bopping around to the feeder, the water, the grass I cut daily and put in their coop for them. The heat does not seem to be adversely affecting them, thank goodness! I can't let them free-range yet due to our abundant fox population. Once I get a better perimeter fence in place they will have acres to roam, but for now we make due.
