The weather is warming up nicely here in Mississippi. \u00a0It has made my runs a bit more of a challenge and it is making life miserable for my chickens, too.<\/p>\n
I looked at the thermometer a couple of minutes ago and it registered at 90F. and it is only 1:45 in the afternoon. \u00a0It is going to be a warm one. \u00a0Gotta love it!<\/p>\n
I thought about my chickens, though. \u00a0They had to be miserable in this heat. \u00a0I went out to check on them.<\/p>\n
They were huddled inside of their tractor. \u00a0The inside of the tractor is actually shady! \u00a0At least they were being smart.<\/p>\n
I have an aluminum roaster set out for them to walk through and to dip their comb in to help them stay cool. \u00a0I checked the water and it was too warm for that. \u00a0I came back into the house.<\/p>\n
I filled a bucket with cold water and then emptied the ice cube trays into another bucket and went back outdoors.<\/p>\n
Peter, the Rooster, was giving me the evil eye. \u00a0He was not sure what I was up to but he also was curious and followed me as I went about my task.<\/p>\n
I emptied out the aluminum roaster and refilled it with the cold water from the sink. \u00a0Next, I dumped in the ice cubes. \u00a0Peter could not stand it. \u00a0He HAD to know what I was doing! \u00a0He came to investigate.<\/p>\n
Dumb chicken was afraid of the ice cubes. \u00a0Seeing as this was his first Summer, I was not surprised. \u00a0I was surprised at the Daryl’s and Greta because last Summer they loved the ice water I made for them. \u00a0They seemed to be more afraid than Peter!<\/p>\n
I scooped out some ice cubes and put them into their regular water containers. \u00a0That was a hit! \u00a0The ice melted fast enough that they quickly became bite size. \u00a0Mmmm!!! thought the chickens. \u00a0Treats!<\/p>\n
They came out of the tractor and tried to eat the ice slivers. \u00a0Surprise! \u00a0Those slivers were cold! \u00a0Cool Beans!<\/p>\n
Soon, the chickens had eaten all of the ice slivers and immediately made way for the aluminum roaster. \u00a0There was lots of ice in there.<\/p>\n
They took a few tentative drinks and then, “Out of my way!” \u00a0Peter decided to go for a swim!<\/p>\n
Well, really not a swim. \u00a0He stepped into the ice water. \u00a0He dipped his comb into the ice water. \u00a0He drank from the ice water. \u00a0He was a happy Rooster!<\/p>\n
Soon, there was a shoving match from all the hens. \u00a0They wanted to stand in the ice water, too.<\/p>\n
I left them then. \u00a0They were cooling off and having fun. \u00a0\u00a0They were happy chickens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The weather is warming up nicely here in Mississippi. \u00a0It has made my runs a bit more of a challenge and it is making life miserable for my chickens, too. I looked at the thermometer a couple of minutes ago and it registered at 90F. and it is only 1:45 in the afternoon. \u00a0It is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,6,8,3,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2417"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2417"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2418,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2417\/revisions\/2418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}