One day during the hot month of August Gertrude McCluck decided to visit the county fair to see what was happening. She jumped off the roost early, went out the door, through the chicken yard, and down the road to the fairgrounds.

Once she arrived she found herself getting squished and squashed by the humongous steers, pigs and ponies. "Oh boy," she thought to herself, "they sure do stink, unlike us chickens." She scratched here and there making her way to the Poultry Barn. "Ahhh... she though to herself once inside, "smells better in here."

Although soon Gertrude noticed that something was wrong. "Why don't I hear anything, there should be a little gobbling, clucking or crowing at least." Gertrude decided to introduce herself. She wandered up to a pen with a fluffy White Cochin hen inside. "Whatever is the matter with you?" said Gertrude.

"It is so hot it is hard to do anything besides breathe!" clucked the Cochin who said her name was Mathilda.

"Oh dear," said Gertrude. She set off down the row to see if the other poultry were having the same problem. Sure enough all the Ducks, Turkeys, Geese, and Chickens in the barn were suffering from a bad case of heat on the feathers (or heat exhaustion as Humans would call it). "Something has to be done!" exclaimed Gertrude McCluck, once again feeling like the Chicken in Charge.

Gertrude hurried off to find the barn manager. "Excuse me!" clucked Gertrude, "there is an issue here in your barn! The poultry are experiencing a bad case of heat on the feathers in here."

"What are you clucking about?" exclaimed the manager Mr. Clottenburg.

"You heard me, now, are you going to do anything about it?

"Oh they are just fine, all of these birds come to the fair every year and do alright," he said lazily.

"Humph," thought Gertrude, "he probably didn't take into account that this year is the hottest one in a long time, well then, I'll do something about it." Gertrude waddled away from him determined to find someone to help her.

Gertrude had a plan. That barn needed a better ventilation system. "Hmm... a few fans could do a lot of good," she thought. So Gertrude rounded up some of the 4-Hers to put up a dozen fans around the poultry barn.

The group of volunteers strolled into the exhibit hall, they figured they could give up a fan or two right? After visiting the sheep and swine barns, they had enough fans for the job. A little hard work, and then ta-da! Fans for everyone.

The poultry in the barn raised their wings to catch the breeze and agreed that they felt much, much, better and were able to endure the heat until the fair ended. Some of them even felt like letting out a crow. The Poultry barn was a livelier place.

Once again Gertrude McCluck, the Chicken in Charge, had saved the day.