Years ago a marriage to a creep kept me from leaving family support in SoCal. Now that I'm married to a great DH we're too old to pull up roots. TG for A/C's and generators during rolling brown-outs or storm outages. Building a patio roof over the coop and run has made a shady haven for the chickens and cover from winter downpours!
Either weather is getting weirder or else we are so technologically connected to the world that we can't believe what different climate exist in other sections of our world!
This photo of a floating chicken is so strange it almost seems photo-shopped!With everyone talking about the heat I just have to share this
Our temps are in the triple digits so I found one more very good reason to have a portable nipple valve waterer in the yard. During Spring the red Brite Tap valve water jug was mostly in the shade of the canopy but early Summer sun began heating up the area. During this horrible summer heatwave I found it necessary to park the water jug next to the chicken coop because the ground became too hot for chicken feet to run to the canopy. The ground dried up and heated up faster than I could keep it watered down. The morning sun gets so hot I can't garden or do yardwork after 7 a.m. I've been having to rise before the chickens in the morning to do a decent amount of yardwork before the sun puts a stop to it:
The coop is shaded under a patio roof where we moved the red portable Brite Tap water jug:
This Black Silkie went broody when the heatwave started and now that the iced water jug is in the shade next to the coop she started taking her usual "showers" under the nipple valves. Here she is working the cold water into her breast skin to cool off and she snapped out of her broody mode. She kept taking showers as her breast feathers dried up. She somehow manages to soak her head and back too:
Another Silkie finds the haven of cold water under the Brite Tap. I just love this portable jug. Easy to move around the yard and easy to clean. We keep the tap water slow-dripping (the green faucet on the wall) so some of the slab stays wet during the hottest days to keep the chickens' feet comfortable.
[COLOR=0000CD] [/COLOR] [COLOR=0000CD]Our temps are in the triple digits so I found one more very good reason to have a portable nipple valve waterer in the yard. During Spring the red Brite Tap valve water jug was mostly in the shade of the canopy but early Summer sun began heating up the area. During this horrible summer heatwave I found it necessary to park the water jug next to the chicken coop because the ground became too hot for chicken feet to run to the canopy. The ground dried up and heated up faster than I could keep it watered down. The morning sun gets so hot I can't garden or do yardwork after 7 a.m. I've been having to rise before the chickens in the morning to do a decent amount of yardwork before the sun puts a stop to it:[/COLOR] 
