One thing I promised myself this year was that I was not going to complain about the weather. Summers here are horrible. I know . . Missouri is having 100+ degrees today too. They may have a couple of weeks of it. We have at last three months of it. Some days are worse than others. But, at this point, we’re here because we (or maybe just HIM) chooses to be. Nothing is holding us here so, since we’re voluntarily here and could leave any time . . we’ll just stop complaining and live with it.
Oh . . Vince has a cold. I can’t complain. I had a cold in June, then the arm/shoulder issues, then the high blood pressure . . but good grief . . it’s a cold! When I’m sick, I go to bed and sleep for days. Vince isn’t a good sleeper at best. Last night, he couldn’t use his CPAP because he was all stopped up. I feel bad for him. When it’s so miserable outside and there are so many things to get done and you feel awful and you didn’t get a good night’s sleep, it’s ok to be grumpy . . so long as you do it when I’m not around!
But . . here’s the real blog post.
It’s Hot! Not a complaint . . just a statement.
Weather
Ah . . look! A cool spell on Tuesday. Seriously, 97° is hot but it’s 10 degrees cooler than 107°.
The chickens are suffering. I’m not sure how many more days of this they can take. They’re picking all their feathers out. They’re so uncomfortable. I really feel bad for them. We took the mini split out of the sewing room and Vince kept it. It was struggling to keep a 1,000 square foot room cool but I’m betting it would work great in the chicken coop. Even a swamp cooler would be better than nothing. Remember . . Vince is feeling bad. He was not impressed with my idea of air conditioning the chicken coop.
Keeping the Chickens Cool
We have fans out. We keep the fans on our side of the fence so as to not have so much cleaning to do on them at the end of summer. You can see that there’s also a kids’ pool in there. I keep just a few inches of water in it so I can dump it several times a day and put cool water in it.
Mister
We have two of these kinds of misters going.
Mister
We have misters hanging in fruit trees that water the trees while at the same time providing a bit of cool mist for the chickens.
Pomegranate Tree
Lastly, I put the hoses from the solar well around trees. If I connect three hoses to that well, it’s a slow trickle but it will pool up if I leave it long enough. The chickens like to play in the mud.
Except for the one mister, all the water is going onto fruit trees so it isn’t too much waste but it does mean I have to walk out there and move things around every hour or so.
They say that the heat is harder on the chickens than the cold. They can take a day or so of this heat but days and days and it’s starting to take its toll. They’re looking sad, laying fewer and smaller eggs. I’ll be happy if they all survive!
Ranch Wife says
Hmmm…I might have to look into those misters. My coop’s too far from any electricity so fans are not an option. My chickens are laying low too, but they’re not picking their feathers out! Your poor chickens! The guineas seem to be weathering the heat a little better. They are laying eggs like there’s no tomorrow. I think they have a higher heat tolerance, unlike me, who is withering in this weather.
Hope you and Vince are both back to feeling like spring chickens soon! Ah, spring! I wish it WAS!
Sue Edberg says
Judy, I feel for you. Here in the Phoenix area they are predicting temps on Tuesday to be between 115 and 117. We have had a fairly “cool” summer so far, but I’m definitely not looking forward to 117 degrees! Hope you (and the chickens) can stay cool!
Judy Laquidara says
Considering the difference in 100 and 110, I don’t envy anyone with 117 temps.
Rebecca in SoCal says
We are having very nice weather now, but Tuesday/Wednesday we’re supposed to heat up again. It looks like we will be about even with you (with a little more cooling overnight). Without air conditioning, I think I will be sitting in the afternoon breeze in the shade next week, reading.
Too bad for the chickens! I hope they do make it through. Is this really worse than previous years?
Judy Laquidara says
The year that we moved here (2011) in August, they had 100 days in a row over 100 degrees. The rest of the summers, as I recall, we’ll have a few days here and there where it’s up near 110 but I don’t think we’ve had it day after day after day like this since we’ve been here. This year everything is so dry too. We never get much rain but usually get a few inches in the spring. We missed that this year so we’re probably down about 80% for our average rainfall so far this year.
Nelle Coursey says
Now is nit a good time to have a cold! Hope he gets better. Being sick in the winter is bad enough but a summer cold is not good! The heat can bring it on too. Plus all this dust from Africa is not doing any of us any good!
Susan says
I hope Vince is better soon. Poor chickens! We are getting your rain right now. The thunder and lightning are close and constant and in between, I hear the rain falling. I wish it were falling on you, instead. We’ve had plenty and you haven’t had any!
Wanda says
Judy I bet Vince has allergies. This dirt\ dust from Africa that has blown this direction this year is giving everybody here fits. Tell him to try some Clartain or Zertic see if gets better. Having a cold is miserable this time of year. We go in and out of air conditioning so much . A lot of people get walking pneumonia because of the hot\cold in summrr. So watch Vince carefully I’m sorry it is so hot there poor chickens. Can’t imagine wearing a fur in that heat.