Five of my hens were just sitting in the rain and snow after dark!

[webbysmeme]

I was out late today, when I got home I went straight to the coop to lock the girls in. I have 15. Only 10 were in the coop. I was frantic! My coop is in the barn. I stepped out of the coop and started to look for my girls. There was a huge possum right outside the door. I shot one about a month ago that was in the coop. Anyways, I shot him and started looking for my girls. I had my phone in my coat pocket, you never know when you might fall on the ice or whatever. I called my hubby to come help me look for them. It was very unusual for them not to all be in the coop after dark!
My hubby comes in the barn and says that I have five soaked freezing girls right outside in front of the barn. I ran out and started grabbing them up as fast and as many as I could at one time. The high got up to 36 today, but we have 3'and 4' snow drifts all over the yard. My girls were standing in the snow and it had been raining for a while. They were soaked! I got them all in the coop and turned the heat on. Hubby brought me a bunch of big fluffy towels. I tried to dry them but they were not cooperating with me at all.
Anyways, while drying them I noticed a lot of dried poo on their butts. So I started looking at all of them and most of them are a mess! It's dried hard as a rock. So I need to know what causes that and why would my girls be just sitting in the snow while it's raining? It's supposed to be really cold tomorrow. Will they dry ok? What do I need to do? I can't bring five chickens in my house.
Please advise? I will bring them in if I need to! Hubby will bitch, but he always does anyways. Will they let me use a hair dryer on them? Then, do I take them back out? Or keep them in for the night? And how am I going to get all those little butts clean? Can that wait until tomorrow? Or do I need to clean them tonight? And how do I clean them? Sorry so much, but I am just sick about the condition they are in. Please help?

 

[Jessicanesh]

I wouldn’t leave them in the coop if they are wet/damp. They will chill in this cold weather and could end up with frostbite if the temps are low enough. I would definitely bring them in and use a hair dryer on them. I’ve bathed chickens, ducks and turkeys and always use a hair dryer on them after a good towel drying. Just make sure you don’t hold the dryer in the same spot. Keep moving it in circles or back and forth so the skin doesn’t get over heated as the feathers will blow around as they start to dry.

As far as the poo I’ve washed chickens with Dawn dish soap before if it was really bad. But sometimes I just clip the poo off with scissors if it’s not too bad.

You have a bit of work ahead of you. I hope all the girls do well and stay out of the rain tomorrow. Good luck!

 

[PirateGirl]

I would guess they stayed outside because of the lurking opossum.

 

[sawilliams]

I agree they probably felt they couldn't getto the coop safely. I have washed and blow dryed chickens as well, it's funny but I think they sorta like the blow dryer though it takes a long time. I had a wet hen this summer, she fell in the dog's pool, we wrapped her up dryed her the best we could but because of timing I couldn't blow dry her right then. So I put a heat lamp on a dog crate and kept her in the house till she was fluffed up and acting well again.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

How are they doing now?
Can you post photos of them.
Personally, if they were soaked, then I would get them dry. If you need to bring them in to do it, so be it. A hair dryer will work well.
All of them have dried poop on their rears? For hard balls of poop you can break those up with a pair of pliers. If they are really dirty, then you may need to give them a soak and wash up the birds.

I have no idea why they were outside, but you have gotten some good suggestions - possum in the coop. They may have run out and it got dark before they made their way back in.
Hopefully that will be the last possum for a while.

 

[webbysmeme]

How are they doing now?
Can you post photos of them.
Personally, if they were soaked, then I would get them dry. If you need to bring them in to do it, so be it. A hair dryer will work well.
All of them have dried poop on their rears? For hard balls of poop you can break those up with a pair of pliers. If they are really dirty, then you may need to give them a soak and wash up the birds.

I have no idea why they were outside, but you have gotten some good suggestions - possum in the coop. They may have run out and it got dark before they made their way back in.
Hopefully that will be the last possum for a while.

Thank you al for the advice. I have several dog kennels, I set two of them up in the basement. Our heating system is in the room that I put them in. I finally had the all dry by 2:00am. It was raining, so I left them in there for the night.
I can't do anything about the poop until I have some help. My husband said that he would hold them for me when he gets home today. I plan on trimming their booties, if there are any that need a soaking, I'll bring theme in and put them in the kitchen sink. I hope the trim will do it! I will take some pictures of before and after. The five that were wet last night, were really hard for me to catch. To bring them in. That's not the way they usually act, so I know they were traumatized. Damn possum! I'm going to have to set up some kind of camera out there so I can keep a closer check on them. I feel so bad for letting that happen to them. I love my girls so much. I cried and apologized the whole time I was drying them. When they settled down a bit, they seemed to enjoy it! I was thankful for that.
I'm going to scramble eggs for them now. It's so cold, I know they will appreciate something warm. Thanks again! You guys always come through when I have something I need help with. You're the best!

 

[webbysmeme]

I agree they probably felt they couldn't getto the coop safely. I have washed and blow dryed chickens as well, it's funny but I think they sorta like the blow dryer though it takes a long time. I had a wet hen this summer, she fell in the dog's pool, we wrapped her up dryed her the best we could but because of timing I couldn't blow dry her right then. So I put a heat lamp on a dog crate and kept her in the house till she was fluffed up and acting well again.

Thank you for the advice.

 

[webbysmeme]

I would guess they stayed outside because of the lurking opossum.

Yes, I think so too.

 

[webbysmeme]

I agree they probably felt they couldn't getto the coop safely. I have washed and blow dryed chickens as well, it's funny but I think they sorta like the blow dryer though it takes a long time. I had a wet hen this summer, she fell in the dog's pool, we wrapped her up dryed her the best we could but because of timing I couldn't blow dry her right then. So I put a heat lamp on a dog crate and kept her in the house till she was fluffed up and acting well again.

Thank you for responding to my shoutout for help!

 

[webbysmeme]

Th

I wouldn’t leave them in the coop if they are wet/damp. They will chill in this cold weather and could end up with frostbite if the temps are low enough. I would definitely bring them in and use a hair dryer on them. I’ve bathed chickens, ducks and turkeys and always use a hair dryer on them after a good towel drying. Just make sure you don’t hold the dryer in the same spot. Keep moving it in circles or back and forth so the skin doesn’t get over heated as the feathers will blow around as they start to dry.

As far as the poo I’ve washed chickens with Dawn dish soap before if it was really bad. But sometimes I just clip the poo off with scissors if it’s not too bad.

You have a bit of work ahead of you. I hope all the girls do well and stay out of the rain tomorrow. Good luck!

Thank you so much for responding so fast. I'm fairly new to chickens. I got my first ones February of 2018. There is always something that I know nothing about. It will be an adventure trimming there booties! I hope they are good girls for me! That's this afternoons plan. Trimming booties!
I'm about to scramble some eggs for them. I'll be posting some pictures later today. One more question! How do you use the Food Grade DE? And what all is it good for?