The Quotidian Chicken

[Wynter Willow]

She's eating and drinking and alert, so I'm pretty hopeful considering she was barely conscious when I found her and couldn't really do much more than twitch and open her eyes.

Unfortunately we're due for some extreme heat over the next few days, so I'm hesitant to put her back out very quickly, because it would be just terrible to bring her back from the brink then lose her because I put her out too soon. In the meantime, I'm shoring up my shade and water routine so that none of her friends experience what she went through.

I try to do everything possible to keep them cool, but it's hard and Phoenix heat is unforgiving. I expect to lose a chicken at some point every summer, but I've already paid my dues for this year with Helga's mother dying when it hit 118 a little over a month ago, along with my most promising Aloha cockerel.

I put out block ice, I fill wading pools, I put up shade, I make mud zones for them to scratch in, but it's just never quite enough. Hoping when some of my sapling trees grow up a bit, they'll provide more natural shade because I feel like part of the problem is that my chicken space is too open.

I am so sorry to hear this. You are doing so much to help keep the chickens cool. 118!!! That is crazy! When it’s that hot, there is no escaping it outside. I can only imagine how stressful this must be.