Down Feathers

Often asked if Sunshines will survive the rainy season when being free ranged already.

Yes.

How? Why?

There are 3 types of feathers.

1) Contour - The ones that you first notice. The feathers that show you the colors? See how they sort of have a combed look when it gets wet? The water just seems to slide.

2) Flight - Allows them to fly :) Notice also how they open their wings when they feel warm...to allow air to their skin.

3) Down - Those fine, short feathers. If the Sunshines already make the water just slide through their contour feathers, the down feathers make sure they are kept warm.

Have you tried shampooing gamefowls? Even if you submerge them already in a pail of water with, you find that they are still dry inside and you have to really toss and tumble their feathers.

Another good example is when you slaughter and defeather chickens. You have to dip the chcken in boiling water to be able to defeather them. You will find that you really have to mess up the feathers to get the skin wet.

So YES, they will do fine even if they get wet....Just make sure they have a roof over their heads and dry beddings, so they may run for cover when they want to. Also, getting wet is different from soaking wet.

Out Of The Ordinary

The weather is not our usual.

Doc Rey is absent for Kaunlaran sa Agrikultura. Normally, he would be do his Vet ng Bayan segment by phonepatch, but he was in an area that had bad Globe signal.

There was no farm visit and I was with Jojie Lim..I decided to be un-uniformed and donned my cute tennis dress.

Instead of Doc Rey, I did my small talk on the unusual weather and what we have to do to make sure the Sunshines are ok...

1) Beddings - they are meant to keep the ranging Sunshines dry and warm. So keep it clean and make sure they have beddings.

2) Curtains - Don't keep out the cold, as you keep out the fresh air they need. You may have a wind breaker, meaning, have the curtains (with air flow below and outlet above) about atleast 1ft from the housing walls.

3) Make sure they get their dose of herbs for prevention and to give them their armor in this weather. Chop up garlic, chilis, oregano - and put it in their drinking water. Be careful when working on the herbs as they can get potent and have a burning sensation :( The potion will keep the Sunshines warm and healthier.

4) Keep you flock report and advise us weekly, so we may monitor and be alerted for potential problems.

5) Build the housing on an elevated, flood free area.

Logic and common sense plays a lot when you give care and attention to something.

Fiesta Time

Yes, we do eat everyday. They say that Filipinos are such big chicken eaters.

That means we may be serving chicken everyday. If I were to base from our sales of chicks and dressed chickens, the people around have learned to eat good and healthy chickens...Sunshines in particular!

We have doubled our production...and we expect the number to increase yet in the next few weeks as our Certified Parent Stocks have performed better than expected in terms of production, hatchability and time frames.

Do we have problems with disposing? Nope. Early and sustainable marketing built the consumer consciousness.

There will be seasons and time when the demand will go up further.... You think it was just Christmas time? There are graduations, fiestas etc...and TODAY will be the perfect time to load. In time to harvest in April and May.

Plan your loading so you maximize harvests, time, effort and profit.

What Does Your Feet Wear?

Long before there were the copycats of the ugly looking, colorful slip ons with holes, I had them in several colors. I still do get them. Very comfortable. That's what my feet wears, day in day out.

But come farm visits and rain....I love rubber boots. You simply forget to take care. No need to be scared of snakes, broken glass, rusty nails....and you walk through water :)



I want them too in several colors.

Wet Season

We can't deny the rainy season is here.

What should you look after?

1) Are they feeling cold? They group/pile together to get heat from one another.
1watt per bird is the recommended for brooding them. Depending on the temperature, you may add more bulbs to keep them comfortable. Instead of using one 100watt bulb for 100 Sunshines, use 10 10watt bulbs or 4 25watt bulbs so the heat will be distributed well.

2) Are they getting wet?
Make sure their housing in not flooded. Elevate housing/flooring if you must. Change beddings often to keep them dry and clean.

3) Do they have fresh air? Is there a strong odor when you open their pens?
Most people make the mistake of enveloping the pen using sacks, curtains etc. The Sunshines need fresh air, even during rainy season. Remember that air comes from below and exits above. So make sure they have vents for the intake and exhaust of air. Do not suffocate them. Create wind breakers around the cages, but do not block off fresh air.

How you feel is how they feel also. Use your senses to guide you in looking after your Sunshines.