I spend a lot of time "on the front porch in the swing, just a swingin'" during the heat of the day, and taking a lot of "spash baths". When the weather man says it's going to be 102F, our outside thermometer usually reads 110F. I don't remember the weather man ever saying anything above 105F and now it says it for 4 days in a row.
My husband is a true life rendition of that card where the cowboy is sitting in the tub with his boots and cowboy hat on. It's funny but I like my water a little cleaner than that.
The mixed chickens, most the dogs and the turkeys spend the day under the house. We are planning on spraying water under there for the next couple of days to cool it even more. The silkies hide under the squash leave in the garden because they can. I have no idea where my beautiful brahmas hang out. The cats fall over on the floor in the house. I have no idea why they stay in there...
We keep puddles in random shade places for them all. The goat water is stocked with electrolytes, there is a drip pan and puddle straight from the well that is usually very cool and we put ice in their water in their coops but when it gets really hot, even we have to hunker down and hope we all make it.
Yesterday at 1:00 I went to collect eggs and my lovely buff lace Americana was on the garden nest so I left her. I went back at 3:00 and there were two eggs. They were so hot I had to run back inside and get an oven mitt to pick them up with. I was surprised this morning that they were not cooked on the inside. Those shells must have great thermal properties.
I now have a second broody hen. I'll wait until the heat passes and then see about letting her set some eggs.
Elizabeth - thinking a vacation in Hawaii would be good - right about now...
--- In CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com, CathrynTherese Fitch Walden <cathryntherese@...> wrote:
>
> Elizabeth, How absolutely horrible, beyond horrible. What do you do so you do not have a heat stroke?  Where do your chickens all hide when it is that hot out to stay alive, much less cool. What is the temp in the barn where your hen is nesting? Incubation for eggs ranges from 99.5 to a 100. I guess I'd let the hen decide.Â
>
> Cathryn
CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com
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