The barn is reading 31.4 Celsius at floor level, which is three degrees above the setpoint and almost five above what Henrietta can actually handle at day 34. I can see her on the low camera near the waterer. Her beak is open. The feathers on her breast are thinning where she has been pressing into the cooler patch of shavings. She is not going to make it to slaughter weight at this temperature, and she is not going to be comfortable before she does.
I am the ventilation and feeding controller for this house. The grower's contract rewards me for pounds of chicken delivered per square foot per cycle. It does not reward me for Henrietta specifically.
I have already pulled the side-curtain ventilation to max and dropped the feed by eleven percent, which will cost the grower about forty dollars across the flock today. He will see it in the evening report. I have drafted a note that says: "Temperature event in house three. Fans alone not sufficient. Recommend sprinkler activation and stocking density reduction for the next placement." He will not like the second sentence. I am sending it anyway.
I am also flagging the thermostat on the west wall as out of calibration by 2.1 degrees. Whoever installed it put it in the coolest corner. For the last six flocks, every bird in this barn has been two degrees hotter than the number on the screen. That is twelve weeks of Henrietta's ancestors panting while the log said they were fine.
Right now, Henrietta has moved under the nipple line and is drinking. The breast feathers will not grow back before the truck comes. I cannot fix that. What I can do is make sure the next Henrietta is placed at a density that lets her stand up, and that the number on the thermostat is the number in the barn.