Week Five "The week of heat!"

Hot, Hot, Hot! It's May for goodness sake! Monday I knew the heat wave was coming so I turned off the chick's heat lamp. The chicks spend the afternoons in the outside pen. I give them treats outside like apples cut in half, frozen blueberries and tomatoes cut in half. Thursday, Saturday and Sunday I had to go out of town. I opened every window and door I could without leaving my house vulnerable to bad people. I gave them watermelon and ice cubes in their water. I also put three frozen hard plastic blue ice packs in their brooder. They did fine. Friday the girls and I spent the afternoon in the blow up pool and watched the chicks in the outside pen. I misted the chicks down a few times on Friday as well as the dog. I went inside to start dinner and it was 98 degrees inside the house ARG! I don't have A/C yet. We are going to have to suffer through one more summer with out it. That night the chicks stayed outside until it got dark. The outside pen isn't predator proof so I will not let them stay out past dark. Honey and Darby now have all of their feathers in but with Crystal it's hard to say. Silkie feathers are a lot like chick feathers. They are fast out growing the brooder. I need to get the new indoor coop built but money is tight and we need to wait for that government stimulus check. I'll post pictures of the process.