It is hot. Feels like temperatures over 100 F in the afternoons. This time last year I was in a panic trying to keep the chickens cool. I’m a little more calm this year, as I know they use the foot baths to cool down when they are hot! I put gallon containers of water in our freezer, then when it is frozen, take it out before noon to put in the foot baths. By about 3pm, the ice is melted, but not yet hot, so I clean out the yucky water and fill the foot bath (which is a plant drip catcher) with the cool water. When it is exceptionally hot, I’ll put a 16oz frozen water bottle in later in the afternoon. They all look like they’ve gained weight because their feathers are all fluffed out to circulate the air near their skin. Egg production is also down. Hot.

Rest in Peace, Pooh. Yesterday we went to check on the chickens, and Pooh the hen had passed away. She is in the picture above, top left. We figure it was something with her oviduct (an exam of her cloaca revealed a full egg, but it seemed caught in a thick membrane), or it was the heat. My eldest and I are not up for a necropsy, and since Pooh was a healthy weight, my Mom thinks it wasn’t a disease. It was hot that night too.