One hen accidentally fell into a cow water trough presumably trying to get a drink (chickens can’t swim!) and I was able to revive her from near death by fluffing dry her feathers in front of a camp fire for about an hour and half. It was sort of like spit roasting an animal by hand, swiveling and spinning her, but at a lower temperature. We put her inside a vented cooler with straw and a tea kettle overnight and she survived no prob. Great experiences for us interns!

Great work guys, looks like a lot of fun! Looks like the shelter wood got put to productive use!

Rob

Uncle Peter

Had a couple of comments… Geoff you mentioned your new solar array, from my experience of solar systems I would suggest the inverter and battery bank capacity will give you the ability to weld and run a power saw at the same time (unless its midday on a very sunny day). My arc welder can draw up to 2.2kW and my power saw almost 2kW. To install a 4kW solar array would be very expensive (the better part of NZD$20,000 here). Besides which a solar panel array can’t give you anything in the evening or at night, it’s all down to your batteries and inverter(s) at those times. Your solar panels might be much better at recharging than earlier technology but buying good batteries and inverters is a better investment. If you widen the system to hydro and wind the investment in batteries/inverters keeps paying. I did my course with you when you installed new batteries in 2008 but I recall you placed them in an enclosure but open to the ambient temperature getting quite cold in Winter and hot in Summer, a great way to shorten battery life, best if they hover around 18C-23C all year if you can manage it. Even a small improvement of installing insulation in the box and having a small DC temperature controlled fan on the vent will extend the battery life.

Other suggestion is clean off the worst of the rust on the trailer base and buy a can of galvinised paint and spray it over the welds and on the rust patches, it’ll extend the life of the trailer by a large margin for very little investment on your part. Perhaps cable tying, or screwing some real estate signs to the door hatch might be nice for the chickens too so that on colder windy days they have some shelter from the wind if it shifts around in the night, with all those vents in it it will likely be drafty, good in Summer, not so nice in Winter

cheers

1. How hot are your summers? I get over 95F regularly, and heat seems to be a big impediment to egg laying. All that metal looks suspiciously like an oven to me, which is why I’ve been planning to use plywood or even OSB, with a foil radiant barrier under the roof.

2. Is there any problem with the hens roosting in the nest boxes? Cleaning poo off eggs isn’t fun.

Thanks!