chocks and heat

[karlooben]

went in the run this afternoon collecting eggs and checking on all the birds when i saw my little dutch millfluer laying out with wings out stretched i thought she was sunbathing but nope she had died he wasnt ill no nothing and was only coming up to 1 yr old she was eating and laying well i personally think the heat got to much for her tonight i am going to risk leaving the houses open and just let the birds do what they please we have this heat for at least another week as it is i cant bare shutting them up anymore and i am surprised my faverolles have coped as well as what they have done .

 

[chrismahon]

Sorry to hear that Karlooben. We leave the pop-holes propped open with a piece of wood set so that any disturbance shuts the pop-hole door. But that's not really enough and the fluffy birds have mesh exterior doors fitted. If your runs are 100% secure you don't need to shut the pop-holes anyway.

 

[karlooben]

i am gutted chris she was just starting to get really tame and would fly up to me and sit on my back , my runs have been up 7 yrs now i think and i have never had a probelm so yes i do trust them completely but knowing my luck it will be that one night that i dont shut them away that the fox will get in , they now sleep in those plastic garden sheds again and the roof is open about 6 inches and tonight i havent even shut the doors right up so theres plenty of air going though really dont know if i can take that chance .

 

[Margaid]

That's awful, so sorry to hear that - it's what I've been dreading the last two days as I've been out all day both days and there's no-one who could check them for me. Thankfully everything has been OK. I had a pop-hole fitted to each end of the hen house to take account of changing wind direction so have managed to fit mesh to the one that's not in use at the moment, but then I only have 5 (well 4 at the moment as one is in the sin house) in a 7' x 4' x 4'6" high henhouse.