Chickens and goat(s) update: heat continues

Here's an update on our chickens and goats.

Chickens

Hot weather continues, except it's about two degrees hotter and there's less wind than before. Chickens use their cooling strategy more often than before. At times you can see almost all of them panting and lying on the ground. Fortunately none has gone really weak or sick, and on cooler parts of the day, they're just as active as usual. 

Chickens lying on the ground, panting.

More chickens lying on the ground and panting.

So many chickens keep their beaks open (to perform panting) that I feel like I'm the only one with the mouth closed. It makes me want to open my mouth too, just to fit in.

A chicken landed on my leg in search of new pecking material (buttons and birthmarks will do).
She keeps panting even then.

Another cooling activity I see more often recently is spreading wings away from the body. Obviously letting some air under the wings helps chickens feel cooler. I can relate - If I was wearing a thick coat and couldn't take it off, I would at least unbutton it and let some air in to cool myself.

Wings spred away from body.
This is not a take-off position before flight. It's a semi-permanent pose as a part of cooling strategy.

Wings spred away from body, from different angle.

The only thing I can do to alleviate chickens' plight is to make sure their water is fresh and cold all the time, that is, to change it often.

We tried one more heat-beating strategy: mist! Cool mist should help lower the outside temperature, so we put a water mister in chickens' yard.

The blue pole in the lower middle part of the photo is water mister.
Can you see the rainbow?

Water mister from different angle. 

The result of the mist experiment: Mist did help a little, but not significantly. It did work well as new object of curiosity for the chickens. They liked to peck at it.

Goats

Two baby goats Natchan (girl) and Kaakun (boy) used to graze at our power plant, but these days only Natchan comes.

This is Natchan and Kaakun on a walk two weeks ago.

These days Natchan comes alone because Kaakun got an assignment elsewhere (He's attending an event for families with children. I hope he's doing well, not overwhelmed by the children.)

So Natchan comes alone for a few hours every day. She copes with the heat better than chickens. Shade from the panels is helpful too.

Natchan grazing in the panel shade.

I sometimes take Natchan for a walk. She always enjoys it - being able to go wherever she wants. But for me, walking a goat has at least two challenges (other than people giving me strange looks):

1. Goats don't make a difference between weeds and hedge trees and vegetables. Natchan's most favorite leaves are our hedge shrubs, soybean leaves and green pepper leaves, and she's perplexed when I don't let her eat those. I feel bad, it's like denying a child an ice-cream without explaining her why.

2. Goats are very curious creatures. I thought goats are into grass, but Natchan likes to sniff and chew everything. I don't mind here chewing on my trousers, but when she starts chewing polystyrene foam boxes and metal screws, I have to pull her away and she gives me the"why are you denying me the only fun thing around?" look.


This is Natchan on a walk:

I thought goats like grass. In fact they like everything. 

So that was a quick update. In other words, everything's great!