How to inspect my extremely floofy hens for pests with no helper?

[Jenbirdee]

English orpington hens are so hard to hold with one arm and try to part feathers with the other one hand it seems impossible

 

[BobStuart]

Hold them but wait till they calm down and then try it.

 

[HeritageFan]

You can also try to use your non dominant hand to wrap up their wings (with your forearm) and cover their eyes with your hand on the same arm.
I have good luck w this method w my turkeys (15-40# birds), the ones that are very resistant land on their back on my lap, head against my chest, and, while I know it isn’t the “best” way to hold them, it does allow me to clip/ file claws if needed, clip wings, and check for mites/ lice/ bumblefoot, as I never have help w health checks.

Sometimes we need to improvise :/
Lmk if this doesn’t make sense and I’ll try to find help taking a photo

 

[Jenbirdee]

You can also try to use your non dominant hand to wrap up their wings (with your forearm) and cover their eyes with your hand on the same arm.

OK so my non dominant arm is the left.
with the bird on my lap, feet side down, her head facing left?
or her head facing right?
or feet side up?
I am trying to picture it without the picture lol

 

[HeritageFan]

I am a southpaw but pretty ambidextrous
I usually go
Sitting on a short stool or a bucket
Bird feet up - back of the tail on my right thigh
Head basically against my left (outer side of my) chest
Left arm traps both wings against my chest, and I can raise my hand to cover their eyes if they are losing it. Right hand can part feathers and I can send a video of wing clipping if you’d like.

They don’t usually panic when their eyes are covered, so that right wing doesn’t typically prove to be a problem if I need to cover their eyes w my hand.

Holding them on their back like that seems to calm them down quickly.
I know that it also puts a lot of pressure on their lungs (esp for turkeys), so I quickly check them out and/ or clip wings and get them back on their feet.

If I’m just doing a health check and find anything of concern on the belly, near the vent, or under the wings, I can usually put them on the ground between my calves, head facing me, and wings between my calves to check their back without a huge fight to verify what I am looking at. The bucket “seat” works better for that, because they don’t see an escape route - the way they do when looking through the legs of a stool

I won’t likely be able to send pix until tomorrow, but lmk if it would be helpful!