Help, Washing for show. Is it ok even when it's cold outside.

[paddock36]

My DS are showing four birds this Saturday and they need to be bathed for the show. I've been waiting for it to warm up but it doesn't appear that will happen in time. Is it ok to bathe and dry them even if they are going to go back outside when finished. I don't want to get them sick right before the show.

 

[paddock36]

Hellooooooo! Anybody there?

Nobody have any suggestions.

 

[dacjohns]

Patience.


If you bathe them then put them back outside won't they get dirty again?

If they are completely dry and their body temperature hasn't dropped I don't see a problem.

 

[destiny_56085]

Bring them in the house in a dog kennel/carrier. Dry them as completely as you can with a hair dryer and then put a heat lamp on them til they are fully dry. Sometimes it takes a day and a half or so...

 

[poltroon]

We had a show last week. We used warm water, bathed them outside (about 50 F), wrapped them in towels and brought them inside. I had fired the wood-burning stove up so that the kitchen was nice and toasty. My daughter sat with the chickens in her lap next to the stove for a while, and then we put them in a clean dog carrier, with shavings, and left them on the kitchen floor for a while until they were completely dry. They were in the house for a few hours.

 

[DawnSuiter]

I don't dry them anymore

It's an extra feature that I don't believe is at all necessary now that we've bathed hundreds of times.

Just use a space a bit bigger than the chicken.. a properly sized crate, use shavings and just put them in it after towel drying (careful not to break any feathers) and leave them inside overnight. We pull them from outside around dusk, bath, crate & then by a.m. they are fine & ready to go back out. Keep the crates OUT OF DRAFTS and hopefully somewhere at least 60* or so... I use the spare bedroom and turn on a heat lamp in the room to bring the ambient temperature up to 65* or so

For non show birds, we pack them into a crate together to sleep in deep shavings... the combined body heats & wood shavings dry everyone within a couple hours, but we still keep them in overnight to allow them to fully recover and to regulate their bodies again.

by overnight.. I mean at LEAST 12 hours.
Hurry and bathe them or the oils won't be back into their feathers for the show!

 

[scarter]

What is your temperature outside?

 

[fowlmamma]

i this week bathed my show birds just because they looked like they just needed a bath. so i use my basement as a place to bath i use 2 metal tubs and wash then keep them in pet taxis and keep them inside for a few days hope this helps and personally i would keep them in there till the show

 

[paddock36]

Thanks everyone.