Hot Wings: The Girls of Summer

It's hard, even for me, to believe that I've been a resident of Oklahoma for over 30 years now.  In all of that time, I've always thought the summers were a little too hot, but mild short winters, compared with say, Wisconsin or Minnesota, whose winters probably shaped (warped) my view of climate for life, seemed to make up for the excesses of summer.  But not this year. This year has been hot and dry.  So far, and that is not  very far at all into this long summer season, every day in June has been over ninety degrees with most in the high nineties and temperatures in excess of 100 degrees predicted for the rest of June.  This is the kind of weather usually reserved for late July and August.  So the fire danger is getting higher and the tolerance for heat is getting lower every day.  In a concealed carry state, that can be a formula for disaster.  But my concern is not so much for getting shot as it is for my "girls", my hens.
     Bless their little hearts, they walk around in the heat all day with the equivalent of a feather comforter wrapped around them, looking for a cool place.  In their minds, that translates into any place that we have planted, or thought about planting, a flower or vegetable.  Some of the favored spots include the half barrel type planters that we use to grow patio tomatos.  I put some potting soil in them and went into the house for a drink of water.  When I came back out, there was at least one chicken in each one, two in some, and all rolling and kicking in dirt bathing bliss.  All the flower beds have been defoliated and turned into chicken bathing wilderness.  I built fences around the vegetable patches to save them from the same fate.  To help the girls stay cool, I've started bringing them in the house.  I pick them up two at a time and bring them in and sit down under the ceiling fan in the air conditioned living room until they cool off.  When a neighbor dropped by this afternoon I said, "Come on in and sit where it's cool for a while."  He seemed a little surprised when I picked up two of my girls and brought them in.  When he asked me about it, I explained that I bring them in two at a time for twenty minutes or so to cool them off.  "How many chickens do you have?", he asked.  "Oh, I guess about 50 or so", I replied.  "Well doesn't that take an awful long time?" , he asked.  What an idiot I thought as I said "Shoot, man, time don't mean nothing to a chicken!"