Bully chicken- seriously evil

[Junibutt]

Maybe I'm missing something but I just figured I would double check. They're under shelter during the day, too, aren't they? Is there shade from the sun during the day? Bit confused about the top being covered at night.

During the day they the top is still covered, however my backyard (which is really a spot for parking two cars) gets about 3-4 hours of direct sun which they are enjoying by bathing in it.

 

[chooks4life]

That's good. Best wishes to you and your flock.

 

[Junibutt]

That's good. Best wishes to you and your flock.

BTW I haven't gotten to giving them a bath yet. Firstly because I am being a chicken especially since they are not familiar with me and expect an uneasy situation and secondly because it was rather cold last 3 days. However today it was sunny and 80 and tomorrow is supposed to be 83. So either I will give them a bath tonight when they are sleepy and keep them inside the house so they don't cold or find some courage in the morning

. Can't wait to put them in the coop with others. My existing gals have already given up trying to attack them. The RIR Tree-Trunks is actually friends with them now and like to hang around their cage more than her siblings.

 

[foreverlearning]

BTW I haven't gotten to giving them a bath yet. Firstly because I am being a chicken especially since they are not familiar with me and expect an uneasy situation and secondly because it was rather cold last 3 days. However today it was sunny and 80 and tomorrow is supposed to be 83. So either I will give them a bath tonight when they are sleepy and keep them inside the house so they don't cold or find some courage in the morning

. Can't wait to put them in the coop with others. My existing gals have already given up trying to attack them. The RIR Tree-Trunks is actually friends with them now and like to hang around their cage more than her siblings.

All mine have loved baths, even when I first got them. Like I said, they are not sure what is going on until that warm water hits them. Once it does they seem to love it. If I leave my back door open my rooster will get into the bathtub and make that noise he does to call the girls over for treats. Hold them like babies (keep a hand over the wing) and bring them in there. Just think about it, if any other pet had a smell you would bathe them right? Easy as pie.

 

[3 NH reds]

lol about the screen name! part of my screen name is my last name so now you can laugh. However I do not live in Alaska, I live in Chicago and it was pretty cold last night for an August night.

x2 I am in Mass and we are having cold nights as well none of the tomatoes are ripe, just tall plants with green tomatoes. If you don't handle your birds allot I would be care full giving them a bath. Birds can die from the stress of being handled. I was talking to someone this spring in a chicken show that lost her best bird to this. She said it would be better to slowly expose a bird to being picked up. I don't know why she didn't do that with her bird, Thought it was best to stay away from that.

 

[katsdar]

you would think that if you are showing a bird that it would be handled alot, just the stress of it being around so many unfamiliar things would get me, least it would have had her for comfort. oh well you live and learn.

 

[Junibutt]

All mine have loved baths, even when I first got them. Like I said, they are not sure what is going on until that warm water hits them. Once it does they seem to love it. If I leave my back door open my rooster will get into the bathtub and make that noise he does to call the girls over for treats. Hold them like babies (keep a hand over the wing) and bring them in there. Just think about it, if any other pet had a smell you would bathe them right? Easy as pie.

Project "Bathing" successful! I tied the legs of first 2 with a yarn and wore dish-washing gloves to overcome my fears but the third one, I did without tying. She flapped once and got out but after that it was fine. They were ok with the bath, however the Silver Laced W loved the blow dry. Seemed like she was posing from every angle to be dried. Hopefully they stop stinking now. I have added vitamins to their water and mixed some grower feed in with their layer feed they had just started getting at the pet-shop.

Kids have named them already:

Silver Laced- Mabel
Golden Laced-Scarlet (go figure why)
Australorp-KoKo

I will post pictures when they are dried up & in their zone tomorrow. Right now they are resting!

 

[katsdar]

I bet they feel so much better and are glad they don't stink, I really don't think any animal likes to feel nasty, So then the old adage madder than an old wet hen, doesn't really apply, who would figure they would like a bath, I may have to try this. Interesting. and they liked the blow dryer the noise didn't upset them. wow I'm amazed, but then I do have my cats that like to get baths, I had one that would lay on his back spread eagle head on the draining board so relaxed only time he would complain is when the water got cold. And when the kids were small you would have to make sure you closed the bathroom door when running their baths because went in more than once and found a cat swimming happily, dau was older teenager and she left the door open, she was really upset that she had to start her water over again, yep cat beat her to it.

 

[chooks4life]

I've always found chooks love to be bathed. Strange creatures.

But then again they are naturally jungle fowl, I'd guess getting soaked is natural to them. Mine don't mind the rain either.

Quote: Some folks think of chooks like they're totally wild birds, not domesticated for thousands of years. So they never handle them. It makes it easy to see when they're sick because then they let you handle them. This theory works, until you realize that your chooks are often past the point of being helped once they've reached the point of not fleeing from what terrifies them. Kinda pointless waiting for them to start dying to handle them to treat them.

Some people say that they're livestock, not pets, so need no handling; but them being non-tame livestock will prevent every necessary treatment being administered without stress, from injury and illness treatment to bringing them to a calm and peaceful death when necessary. Many unnecessary deaths are caused by people simply not taming the animals under their care. It makes stress and hardship and risky interactions for both man and animal.

It does not make sense in the long run, from any point of view, to not tame your livestock. The biggest cattle farmers in Australia take care to tame their cattle despite never seeing them for up to a year at a stretch in some cases. They have strict rules for how they are to be treated. If you cannot handle your livestock to do whatever is necessary without distressing the life out of them, then a fundamental and necessary part of animal husbandry has not yet been taken care of. It's not how often they're handled, it's how they're handled when they are.

Our ancestors didn't work to keep animals tame for the fun of it. It's necessary for our safety and the animal's. I remember an old bit of history I read about shepherds in one country. If a sheep had an anti-tame, human-averse mentality and tried to lead the flock to panic at the shepherd's approach, the shepherds would break one of its legs. Then they'd splint it, put it in a pen, hand-feed it, and make a pet of the sheep while it recovered. When recovered, it would have a pet's mentality and would reliably lead the flock to the shepherd, not away. It sounds quite cruel, but it was either this, or kill the sheep and thus lose a possibly necessary productive member of the flock, or let it continue to scare the flock so they would risk losing their livelihood and possibly watch their families starve. Harsh measures for harsh times. Not that I'd use this method, personally.

I've had chooks become tame and friendly after I've tended them through an injury or illness (nothing deliberately inflicted, don't worry) whereas before the life-changing event they were hostile to humans without cause. Our actions and environment turns genes on and off according to what we do, eat, and experience, and the same is true of animals. Sometimes a life-changing event is all they need to become good productive flock members. It's happened so often that now my family jokes about it, having seen my previous rescues and patients change after treatment.... Now, when we see a chicken being unfriendly without cause, we joke that it needs a 'life threatening event'.