Lol, you described my experience with a crow collar perfectly. They do work, you just need to have the mental ability to watch the rooster freak the flip out all over the yard, acting like a crazed nut and resist the urge to take it off, while hoping the poor thing won't die. And then they...
Once she's running around and all perked up, fill up the sink or a bowl with warm water and lather the chick up with a gentle soap, I used a foaming baby soap I had on hand, rinse her gently and put back in the Incubator to fluff up again .
I have chickens that are from a leghorn hen covered by Isbar Rooster and they lay nice a nice green egg at a leghorns frequency. This is them as chicks in the pics. Now they look like leghorns with random black spots on them.
I appreciate you putting that out there. This approach may not be for all, but I've decided it's the one I'll be taking. We grew up with lots of chickens. My parents never dewormed, powdered, dusted, treated or fretted over the chickens in anyway. They never had mass casualties or outbreaks...
I just filled up the bathroom sink, but a small container will do. You can try with just water, but I had a hard without it as I didn't want to scrub the chick and I found the soap kind of took care of that.
Yes, that's a sticky chick, no big deal. I used a gentle baby soap I had on hand and used warm water to lather and wash.The whole bath lasted maybe 30 seconds. Dry her off gentley a tad and put her back in the incubator. She'll fluff up.