Handling Chickens

[goldeneggtees]

You can also look for any cuts on them and make sure their vent area and surrounding feathers are clean. I had someone chicken sit for me and wasn't used to them and one had been injured and no one noticed. If it had been caught sooner, she never would have had so much trouble recuperating. She was a mess for awhile but is getting better and better everyday.

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[SunshineSilkies]

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In addition, after I pick them up, if I want to check feet, vent and so forth, I hold them like a football tucked under my arm with their butt facing out, face backwards...

 

[patandchickens]

If I'm picking one up for inspection I usually use the backwards football type hold that sunshinesilkies describes, since it is usually the back end or undercarriage that is needing of examination

As far as inspecting for mites and lice, in addition to looking at the exposed skin near the vent and in the 'wing pits' it is worth using a puff of breath to 'blow apart' the feathers in several different places including the hackles on the back of the neck... this parts the feathers super-fast with no warning to the mites and if you look closely as you are puffing you can sometimes see mites runnnig away. A severe infestation will be noticeable no matter what, but if there are just a few you may not find them unless you do something along those lines.

I am a big fan of using a headlamp, or a small bright flashlight between my teeth if the headlamp's gone missing again

, to examine the birds on teh roost after it is fully dark. You can check them out much more thoroughly and calmly than you could during the daytime, unless yours are tame to the point of being lap pets in which case obviously daytime is fine.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[possumqueen]

An old chicken guy told me once that the chicken should feel "surprisingly heavy." Like picking up a jug of water that's fuller than you thought it would be.

You have to pick them up to see if they're healthy. Those feathers can cover a skin-and-bone bird who looks perfectly healthy until one morning you find her dead and wonder what happened.

But even the game birds that are supposed to look slim and streamlined, when you pick them up they seem to weigh a ton if they're good and healthy.