Panting chickens!!
Chicken Swamp Cooler!Life in the Sonoran Desert is defined by one word today....HEAT... right now at 3 pm it is 117 degrees Farenheit. I have resorted to all of my anti heat strategies learned through more than 30 summers in this inferno. Today, my focus is on keeping my chickens alive. How hot can a chicken get before it can't take it???? I think that I am about to find out. The poor little things are panting away in their pen. The pen is in the shade, they have plenty of water and now I have resorted to constructing a Rube Goldberg swamp cooler with the help of my mother who shares my concerns for our flock of heat intolerant chickens.....
With a fan, my roasting pan acting as a water reservoir and a shredded towel, I am now blowing air across a wet towel that has been torn in strips to provide some cooling of the air that is blowing into the coop....we will see. I have also frozen milk bottles of water and have put them into the pen in the hopes that the chickens will be smart enough to sit near the ice......intelligence does not seem to be their strong suit today...maybe the heat is frying their brains....
So maybe we now know the answer to the proverbial question?? Why did the chicken cross the road? To get out of the heat!!!!!!!!
I have wet down every surface in the yard, and I am keeping the dogs wet while they are outside for their needed bathroom breaks and am keeping them inside as much as possible.
GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!! I need a vacation in the mountains.......Peace,
Julia
