Facing the Fires of Hell! Also known as a South Australian Heatwave.
On Tuesday I had Buffy in with heatstroke and temperatures were still climbing. Thankfully she made great progress, but there was no way I was letting her back out until the heatwave was over. She was the most comfortable chicken on the property by Thursday.
Buffy spent a couple of days sleeping and recuperating
Thursday we apparently broke a record. We are north of the city and air temperature reached 47°C (166.6°F). Out in the garden with the sun blazing down it was probably even hotter. I'd frozen bottles of water in preparation and they went in the coops and runs with the hose running on spray alternating between the runs. Chickens were sitting on the ice bottles and still struggling to keep cool.
I want to be able to say we all survived, but sadly one of our sweet little araucanas, Athena, didn't make it. The araucanas always struggle the most as they don't have much of a comb to release heat through. At around 8:30pm, when I found Athena, it was nearly dark and still registering 40°C (104°F). It's strange to feel like a heater is being held against your skin when there isn't even any sun.
Athena
By Friday Morning the heat had broken and the flocks seemed very subdued. Buffy was able to go back out and took things slowly, but was finally steady on her feet. I felt very subdued myself as I worked my way through the usual things that needed to be done before I started digging a resting place for Athena. It was a busy day, but I was too exhausted to bother rushing and stressing.
Saturday offered the opportunity to slow the pace, recuperate and assess things. I was actually very surprised with how well all the plants had survived. A lot of water had been going into the garden in preparation for Thursday, so the soil was wet, but the plants were drooping already that morning. Top ups went to the more vulnerable plants, like seedlings, throughout the day. Some plants have a bit of scorching on the leaves, but not the citruses, which I fully expected to have had the new growth burnt off.
Some plants scorched, but still alive
The citruses weren't scorched one bit!
I gave the gardens another thorough soaking that evening, and Friday it managed to stay damp the whole day. The front garden is the biggest testing ground as it is open to the full sun for the largest part of the day. Nothing died!
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We need some way to transfer temperature via Steem. Expecting lows here of -26 F next week.
That would be sooo good!
Ours all came through it okay, not sure if the isa browns are more heat tolerant.
We were over on yorke peninsula. It's normally a bit cooler there, but not this time.
Hottest I've ever felt the air. It actually felt personal, like nature was deliberately cooking us.
The avocado is pretty burnt, but it'll pull through.
The neighbours' date palms are hurting real bad. They'll probably lose at least one.
The mother in law dropped by to water and collect eggs.
It would have helped that they are pretty young still. First year hens seem to brush it off better than older ones. Particular breeds do feel the heat more so than others. There was a free range pasture raised farm at Mount Barker, lost nearly half their flock. They would be ISAs or hylines like your girls.
So pleased to hear your avocado is still going strong. That's two pretty hot summers it's survived. You must be doing something right.
Someone else was heading to the Yorke Peninsula. Same conversion. Usually it's cooler, but as the day got closer the predicted temperature just kept increasing.
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We totally sympathize with that and we're thinking about you guys. Poor babies. I remember the heat getting that bad a few years ago, and using water bottles and all the tricks to try to keep them alive. Jamie came in with a chicken emergency, as she had basically passed out under a tree, so we used a syringe to get water and rehydrating tablets in to her and she was on the couch under the air conditioner for the rest of the afternoon. By some miracle she survived and from then on she was named hot stuff. It seems unfair that the following year she got eaten by a fox full stop or chickens they have a terrible life sometimes but we do the best to look after them. Do you have air conditioning and has the cool change come through for you? XX
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We have evaporative aircon, so not the best, but way better than nothing! Buffy pretty much passed out on the Tuesday, which was why she was inside benefiting from the aircon and ice bricks. She had some water in her crop, so I didn't have to force feed anything. I hate having to do that, because I worry it will go down the wrong way. Once she could sit up, she hardly stopped drinking, though.
The temperature plummeted Friday and had been dropping until today, when we've been under 30°. Going to go back into the 30s tomorrow, but no 40s due for at least a week.
How have things been going your way? I noticed Victoria was getting into the 40s too.
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