do my chickens need a bath?

[chickencrazy21]

its been raining here in Cali and although we have hay up in there chicken pen and in there chicken cages some still have mud and some have poop on them. one of them pip squeak has an orange smear on her back I'm not sure if its mud or chicken poop since some sit on the bars in there cages and others cuddle on the floor. so do i need to give them a bath when it warms up or what? if i do how do i give them a bath like what soap do i use and all that? thanks for you help!

 

[thebanthams]

You can give baths if you want to. You need to dry them throughly .

 

[thebanthams]

You can give baths if you want to. You need to dry them throughly .

I forgot to mention that you can use baby shampoo or mild dog shampoo, blue shampoo will make white whiter.

 

[hollys chooks]

When it rains and my girls get wet they get to and preen themselves and always look beautiful when they dry out.

They are pretty good at cleaning themselves and in preening themselves they oil their feathers making them water resistant.

Personally I would only wash a chook if it was badly soiled or exposed to something harmful.

What I would be looking at is their sleeping quarters to see if I could stop them sleeping under the roost of the others. I understand that isn't always straight forward as the silly birds don't always do what is best for themselves.

I'm hoping for some rain here in Adelaide as my girls have been eating peaches fallen off the tree, they all have sticky, grubby faces.

 

[redsoxs]

Mine seem to keep themselves quite clean. They dust bathe themselves and really seem to love that. I would be worried about washing off natural oils with soap...just my opinion.

 

[chickencrazy21]

ok ill see how they do after all this weird weather we have and if need be wash them when it gets warm out. im so not looking forward to the prospect of washing 28 chickens if need be ill do it but so dont want to lol

 

[hokankai]

Let me tell you, blow drying a chicken takes FOREVER so if you don't have you bathe them...I wouldn't. SO annoying, haha.

 

[Redbird1950]

Unless you are preparing them for a show I would not wash them. By doing so you will wash off the natural oil on the feathers. When the weather clears up and the mud is all gone they will preen themselves all nice and shiny again.

 

[Chici]

I wondered the same thing. My white leghorns (Marilyn & Paris's) feathers are stained brown. They used to be so beautiful! They really don't care but it does bother me. Also, their butts are BALD! What can I do?
I'm new at this....