Our introduction to keeping chickens, the high's, the lows and pics of our journey.

[vehve]

Here above +25 is considered a heatwave

Tornadoes never happen here, and the worst earthquakes have possibly dropped a vase off of an shelf. If it was standing on the edge. On a crooked shelf. And even then, very seldom. In the winter, when Google and Microsoft announced that they where locating new data centers in Finland, a newspaper wrote about how Finland's new competitive edge is that it's a boring country. We are both politically and geographically stable. And cooling costs for massive server farms are cheap. Actually there's one under Helsinki that is used to heat up nearby houses in the winter.

Fingers crossed that both ladies make it through their hatches.

 

[Bens-Hens]

Ben your gonna end up with that twisted bator face again if you keep staring through that window.

'Bator face is back hahahaha. I NEED proof of life before bed time.

Here above +25 is considered a heatwave

Tornadoes never happen here, and the worst earthquakes have possibly dropped a vase off of an shelf. If it was standing on the edge. On a crooked shelf. And even then, very seldom. In the winter, when Google and Microsoft announced that they where locating new data centers in Finland, a newspaper wrote about how Finland's new competitive edge is that it's a boring country. We are both politically and geographically stable. And cooling costs for massive server farms are cheap. Actually there's one under Helsinki that is used to heat up nearby houses in the winter.

Fingers crossed that both ladies make it through their hatches.

I love the idea of recovering the server heat to warm houses. It's just really basic thinking that is often overlooked or out priced.

 

[vehve]

'Bator face is back hahahaha. I NEED proof of life before bed time.

I love the idea of recovering the server heat to warm houses. It's just really basic thinking that is often overlooked or out priced.

We have quite a lot of those kinds of implementations in place. Most of Helsinki is on a system called "Remote heat", there's a humongous powerplant close to the city center (and many smaller around the city) which supply over 90% of the heat to Helsinki. In summertime large structures are cooled down with the same principal, the power company has huge man made underground lakes that are used to store cold. I think similar systems are in use in other cities as well. Geothermal systems are gaining popularity in smaller housing, and then there are of course basic heat pumps that use air as a source for heat. Solar really isn't that well suited for Finland, but some people use the panels as well.

Our house is heated with direct electricity, but we have about 20cm of rockwool and 20cm of aluminium coated (Is Australia a aluminum or aluminium country?) polyurethane in the walls, and I think the roof has about 80cm of insulation. The windows are triple glazed heat reflecting glass. We also have a heat capturing ventilation system. And now that I got the compost going it seems we've cut down on trash to under half of what it used to be. Our water consumption is still crazy high though, I can't understand how Karin and I can use 28 cubic meters of water per quarter, while our neighbors who have 2 kids only use 24. One issue is that I've shut down the pump that circulates hot water in the pipes, and have it on a times. Should reprogram it to be used at smarter hours, now you have to waste a lot of water before you really want to step into the shower unless the pump has just circulated water through the system, but if it was running continuously, the water in the pipes got cooled down quite a bit and it ended up costing about 30-40 euros per month to keep it on non stop. No point in heating up water just to cool it down, especially when it made the cold water warm as well.

 

[satay]

Hahaha, our summers sounds kinda the same!

Down where we live, we don't get a wet and dry season (as they do up in the north) but we do get a winter and summer. IN the north, dry season is in winter and wet in summer while both are quite warm.

Down here winter on average gets to a low of about 0C, occasionally dips below but not all that often really. We hear all about it if someone finds ice on their windscreen hahahaha. Has snowed a few times in the hills, but most places in the world would laugh pretty hard at it. Winter highs can be clear and in the 20'sC.

We very rarely get tornado's, and they are so small they are just babies. A few fences and a couple of roof's and they are done. We do have some pretty big storms though, and the hail that comes with it has done a fair amount of damage in the past.

In summer, people start talking about heat waves when it's 40+ for a few days straight, it's not uncommon to have a fair few days over 45C in summer. We often have water restrictions as we consume more than can be pulled from bores or falls from the sky. Desalination is still in the works here too.

Still no chicks out, just a tiny beak poking out a zip hole, still nothing at all from the BLRW, I am growing concerned about it as I normally stare long enough to see some sign of life but not this time, not since Day 18 anyway.

Your weather sounds similar to ours Ben.. Only you get more rain. Our rain fall total for the first 6 months is 267mm. We used to quite often get that in January. In the jan 11 floods we got 484mm in one day.... So we are way down on rain with not much chance of rain anytime soon. So glad we have a bore. No water restrictions for us thankfully. We do get into the minuses over night in winter but get up to similar temps as you during the day. Last three nights were 2c,3c and 14c last night... Weather really has gone mad in qld.
Hope your remaining chicks hatch for you ben.

 

[Wrightsx4]

Keeping fingers and toes all crossed here waiting for your chicks to hatch!!! Hoping you wake up to two healthy hatchlings.

 

[Bens-Hens]

I have some good news and some not so good news.

The good news is this morning our little family got to welcome in a yellow downed five toes silkie! Was zipping while the kids were making lunch so we got to watch the hatch live!

Sadly though, the BLRW egg with the funky side air cell still had not moved or made a sound. Once the silkie was out I candled the last egg and there was no response. I could see red around the lower part of the chick and one end of the air cell.

Once the kids were off to school I tried to get some pics of it, then opened the shell. The beak was still under the wing so it looks like something else went wrong with it as I thought it has pipped a vein but I don't think that was the case. Even if it tried it would have had a hard time with that shaped air cell. Yolk sac was in tact and a nice bright yellow but either way, we lost it.

So I am trying to make a time with the breeder lady down the road to try pick up a couple of day olds this afternoon to keep this one company. It is certainly not black, so my guess is it will be partridge or white. Hope it's a pullet so Alicia can spoilt it forever.

In other news, we are a Aluminium country....so according the the US "we say it funny"








I will get much better pictures once it is in the brooder.

 

[Wrightsx4]

Aww! Congratulations on the good part of your news. Sorry you lost the other one. Looks like we're in the same boat each with one chick this time around. What color will that yellow downed silkie turn? Our first white silkie (Sasquatch) started out more beige with grey smudges. So did our now 4wk old silkie which is now all white. Mine are hatchery stock though so maybe they should've been yellow. Cute little thing! Can't wait for the brooder pics!

 

[K Spot]

Adorable Ben - so sorry about your other chick

 

[cwrite]

Sorry about the other egg Ben, but so cute to have a silkie chick. I look forward to seeing the fluffed up pics.

 

[Bens-Hens]

Thanks team. We know there are risks with postal eggs. We were so looking forward to watching a BLRW feather out.

Lisa who supplied the eggs has silkies of black, white and partridge. She will be best to verify the down colour from her experience. I for some reason recall she did not send any white though so my guess is it's going to be a partridge silkie! Fingers crossed for a girl. Our friends silkie roo has one hell of a crow on him for a 'girly' looking little boy, I don't think we could keep one under wraps for too long!

The breeder we are hoping to catch this afternoon has limited stock at the moment due to everyone being off the lay. She did say she has less than week old AUstralorps (fingers crossed for a blue in there) New Hampshire and Minorca's so if all is well we might get one of each......and if I see a frizzle that's coming home with me too hahahaha