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Post by wtrfwlr on Jun 30, 2012 11:23:50 GMT -7
Let me start by saying this is way out of my field of expertise so if I get blasted here by this suggestion so be it, I'm just trying to help out with an idea I had. I was checking out of a lawn and garden today and they had one of these water misters set up near by. As I stood there the temp drop was incredible! I did not get wet but I could sorta feel the cool mist on my skin. The thing was (it was in front of a fan BTW) the air temp was very comfortable. So I just thought that maybe some of you folks that are struggling with your birds and bunnies might be able to set this deal up and save your stocks. If this is total Bunk just pull the whole thread if need be, I just thought that if it felt that good on me it might work on pets and such? Here are a couple that I found that were really inexpensive with just a quick search. There are many others out there from every price range and size. I wish I had one for me here at the house! www.walmart.com/ip/Arizona-Mist-3-8-Outdoor-Patio-Mist-Extension/16332447www.walmart.com/ip/Twist-Mist-Outdoor-Cooling-System/19715445 |
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Post by wtrfwlr on Jul 1, 2012 0:12:47 GMT -7
I take it this is not such a good idea. Sorry.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2012 0:52:54 GMT -7
We have some folks here locally doing that for their chickens, turkeys, hogs, and even for the horses and in a cattle loafing shed according to the local news report...and they swear by it...only they said it can get expensive with the electricity and the water usage. I cannot imagine what the water or electric bill would be for them!! I use a different method, personally. I am afraid if they get use to the cool air of teh mister all the time, then when you take it away from them, they will become stressed even more, unless the weather temps are about the same as the misting temps, and I don't want to run those things from April to November. Once you start something that drastic on animals, you really need to keep it going...much like keeping your dog indoors in the AC and putting him out to do his bussiness...you gotta bring him back in quick or he will have a heat stroke. For Jims dogs, we freeze LOTS of water in 1 gallon ice cream tubs and fill a kiddie pool with water, and a few times during the day we add a few tubs of ice to cool it odwn...he has a beagle and a lab mix, they seem to really appreciate the ice water! They NEVER come in the house EVER. For my rabbits I got an idea from my step-moms sister...I use old 1 gallon jugs and freeze them...make sure the bottle has some air squeezed out for expansion so it won't bust...I put 1 in with my buck and 2 in with the doe and her litter of now 4 week old babies. I didn't learn this until 2 of my 3 girls died. They will lick the moisture off the bottles and lay up against them to cool off. They don't lay there all the time though, just enough to cool down and then they move away. I put fresh ones in around 6am, change them around 1pm and remove them completely after the sun has completely set. They don't get any during the night. It helps ALOT! So far, everyone has been to tired to nibble on anything, so no leaks yet!! On still air days (no wind) I use the standing oscilating fans from my bedroom and livingroom and point them on the rabbits, set to oscilate so they get some kind of airflow, but again I only do this during the day. I tried this with my chickens, but they had no interest in the ice jugs, neither did the pig (she loves her wollow getting fresh water 3 times a day though). The ducks just go to the cove of the pond and sit under the shade and get wet when they want to cool off. For the chickens, I just soak the yard down (not muddy, but good and wet) early in the morning and again in mid afternoon when I change the rabbit bottles (jugs & drinking water both). Since the chicken yards stays shaded all day the ground doesn't dry out real fast. Its not muddy by any means, but the birds seem to like it and seem less stressed with this. The chickens don't seem to like the fans much. So I quit using them on the birds. My banties don't seem to be affected by the heat, suprisingly. But the Cornish Cross butcher birds seem terribly miserable. I am thinking instead of waiting until next weekend, I may butcher a few days early to get them out of their misery! Wanna help?!! I think if a person has the financial means to set up a good cooling system adn keep it running from late spring to late fall, then it wouldn't hurt anything. If you simply have a few animals like I do adn can afford it, maybe...but I would personally avoid it on rabbits. The moisture in teh air might cause resperatory issues...rabbits will get pneumonis pretty easy, and some just keel over dead for no reason. It dosn't take much to stress a rabbit to death. Horses love these cooling systems, as do many cows!! I think it depepnds mostly on how much $$$ a person has and what kind of animals they are dealing with. Sorry to be so long winded. Here is one of the babies cooling down.  Momma and babies keeping cool  Frosty (my buck) in his temporary hutch enjoying a jug of ice  |
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Post by orly152 on Jul 1, 2012 2:20:07 GMT -7
Wtrflwr, I know exactly what you are talking about. They have the very same system with a fan blowing a light mist on the lines at the theme parks in Disney Parks Florida. I can tell you that It's refreshing and most certainly a few degrees cooler around those things. I don't see why it shouldn't help out the livestock to stay cool.
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Post by sirderrin on Jul 1, 2012 4:03:48 GMT -7
They use huge misting systems in the commercial chicken houses around here....We can always tell when they cut them on because we usually loose around 10lbs of water pressure. At the other place we lost so much water pressure I had call and raise a small ruckus...We was down to about a gallon an hour dripping out of the faucet ......Those thing suck a HUGE amount of water
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Post by wtrfwlr on Jul 1, 2012 8:55:45 GMT -7
As I stated my animal husbandry skills are limited. What I was thinking of was a way to possibly help some of those that have small animals that are perishing due to this oppressive heat that much of the country is suffering this summer. I know that there has to be concerns over water usage and the power to operate the fan. Please know that I was not contemplating a large scale operation here that would require an elaborate plumbing set up with multiple misting jets and massive air hancllers or anything like that. I had in mind something along the lines of a garden hose and a box fan. I also had not envisioned that this would be something that would be used to the extent that it would "condition" the animals to the point that they would become dependent on its use. I just thought it could be something that could be utilized during the hottest part of the day to merely reduce the temperature down from 105* to a more bearable 95*. And I doubt that this would be something that would need to be in use for the entire summer from April through to November, there are many months that the conditions are very temperate and comfortable. I was just thinking of a temporary fix to this extreme situation. I did quite a bit of reading this morning to learn a little more about this and it seems to be a viable and accepted way to bring relief to people and animals alike. I didn't read anything about this creating health problems or anything adverse like that. As far as the consumption of power and water it obviously is all dependent on the size and number of misting nozzles that are used as well as the pressure of the water system itself. I had in mind just one or maybe two and as I said just a simple fan of some sort. There is a chart that graphs all of that out but just to take a middle of the chart a nozzle will use less than .3 gallons per hour. As far as the power that of course will depend on a lot of variables namely fan motor size and what the actual electric rate is in your particular area. One estimate that I read has a simple fan consuming .30 cents per day. So I really do not know how much water costs but if this was used for 8 hours as an example it would be about 2 1/2 gallons and surely that cannot be all that much money? I think that for a misting system to cause an entire water supplies pressure to drop to the point that the flow rate would be reduced to 1 gallon per Hour would have to be on a massive scale of water consumption. I would venture to guess that there was more involved with this problem than just the misters such as a main supply line being broken or stopped up. I know that there are MANY people around that are much much smarter than I am, especially when it comes to this sort of thing so just take it for what its worth. A simple idea or suggestion on another way to help beat this summer heat. Here are the references that I read through this morning. Granted I did not study this material per-say I just skimmed over the text to get an overview of the subject. www.ads.uga.edu/documents/JohnBernard03-2010.pdfwww.agriculture.purdue.edu/aganswers/story.asp?storyID=918ezmister.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=47&Itemid=55www.alloutcool.com/index.htmlwww.alloutcool.com/misting-system-4.htmlwww.articlesbase.com/gardening-articles/how-to-build-and-install-water-misters-3715245.html |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2012 9:26:22 GMT -7
I am sure everyone (including myself) understands you are only trying to help us figure out a way to keep out critters alive and you have NO idea how much I REALLY do appreciate that. If I had some way to do it and could afford to, I would set it up for my horses and my cattle in a heartbeat! No one is bashing the idea, by any means. If you think of anything else, please post it!!
It's 11:30 in the morning (I am at Jims) and the idiots across the street are shooting screamer bottle rockets, all 3 horses are out there all jumpy and nervous...its over 100* and they are wringing sweat. I cannot lock them in the barn and ther is nothing I can do to calm them down. Something like that located at the other end of the pasture in the trees would be awesome...but he is not about to run a waterline across a 20 acre field for that. I just have to set here and pray they don't all have heat strokes. If they weren't so jumpy and nervous, I would bring them out 1 at a time and give them a good soaking from the top of the legs down (but not the body) to help them cool off...alas, I am stuck on this one today, so ideas on keeping 1200# of hot stressed horseflesh cool are greatly appreciated!!
Thank you for thinking of our animals and of us, Duckie.
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Post by wtrfwlr on Jul 1, 2012 9:36:26 GMT -7
You bet Dink. That whole situation you got going on there is not at all a good one. I'm glad I am here and not there. I can see a situation where I would not keep my mouth shut and of course I would be the one takin the the squad car ride!
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Post by Lawdog2705 on Jul 1, 2012 13:24:38 GMT -7
I don't have any livestock but, I even put out a large bowl of water for my squirrels and birds. It's just miserable here. As a matter of fact, I gotta get off here. We're about to get blasted...later all!
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Post by wtrfwlr on Jul 1, 2012 13:32:18 GMT -7
I don't have any livestock but, I even put out a large bowl of water for my squirrels and birds. It's just miserable here. As a matter of fact, I gotta get off here. We're about to get blasted...later all! My Gosh! Blasted by what?  Please respond when you can and let us know it was a nice blast of some sort! |
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Post by Lawdog2705 on Jul 1, 2012 19:29:02 GMT -7
I don't have any livestock but, I even put out a large bowl of water for my squirrels and birds. It's just miserable here. As a matter of fact, I gotta get off here. We're about to get blasted...later all! My Gosh! Blasted by what? Please respond when you can and let us know it was a nice blast of some sort! LOL...big gully washer! Power was off and on but not off for any real length of time. Not much damage on my side of town. Guess I'm on the right side of the tracks. Other side lost power, had hail, downed trees. |
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Post by wtrfwlr on Jul 1, 2012 19:55:02 GMT -7
Don't do that sorta thing to me! When you say "I'm about to get blasted!" well.........some folks minds jump to some pretty wild conclusions!  What in the world is a "Gully Washer" anyhow? Is that some sorta long forgotten weather event that may involve rain??? |
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Post by Lawdog2705 on Jul 1, 2012 20:01:07 GMT -7
Don't do that sorta thing to me! When you say "I'm about to get blasted!" well.........some folks minds jump to some pretty wild conclusions! What in the world is a "Gully Washer" anyhow? Is that some sorta long forgotten weather event that may involve rain??? I guess I'm showing my age. Yes, a gully washer is a big, heavy rainstorm. My daughter ask me the same thing...I thought I taught her better than that...geeze! |
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Post by wtrfwlr on Jul 1, 2012 20:42:26 GMT -7
Don't do that sorta thing to me! When you say "I'm about to get blasted!" well.........some folks minds jump to some pretty wild conclusions! What in the world is a "Gully Washer" anyhow? Is that some sorta long forgotten weather event that may involve rain??? I guess I'm showing my age. Yes, a gully washer is a big, heavy rainstorm. My daughter ask me the same thing...I thought I taught her better than that...geeze! Ok, Thanks for clearing that up for me. Now what in the world is a rainstorm? That is another weather event in which some sort of water falls from the heavens above right? I hope you see where this is going right? I know what a gully washer is as well as a Toad Strangler! It has just been so long since we have had any rain all we can do is try and joke about it. That way people won't as easily see we are all really crying and not laughing!!! |
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Post by mud on Jul 1, 2012 22:00:13 GMT -7
When I worked for Cargill on hog farms we had misters set up. They really help if the barns are not air conditioned.
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