FLXCHIX
Songster
I have six hens, 3 RIR’s, 1 Austrlorp, 1 Leghorn, and 1 mystery hen named Hazel. Hazel is special. She is a big girl, a real big girl! Hazel also was blessed with one fuzzy butt- (she might be part Orpington). Due to the fuzziness of her nether regions and much to Hazel’s despair, she has had some hygiene issues...yes, it’s poo...a lot of poo build up.
I’ll be the first to take the blame for not taking care of this much sooner. In my defense, I’m a new chicken keeper and I was nervous to tend to this issue, but I couldn’t take it any longer. So last night my husband and I decided to tackle Hazel’s massive dingleberry. Armed with a bucket of warm water, rubber gloves, sponges, and a blow dryer we prepared for battle. Walking outside, Hazel was immediately on to us, she knew something was up and she wasn’t going to have any of it. Just a 1/2 hour before she was okay with me near her and even let me pet her, but not now. She knew the battle of the dingleberry was about to take place.
After a couple of failed attempts to catch her, I finally grabbed the little heifer and brought her into our shed to start what I hoped to be an easy procedure. We decided my husband would hold Hazel and I would go to work mining a lode of poo off her butt. (side note: my husband tried to talk me out of having chickens for two years, telling me they’ll be nothing but problems...lol ‘butt problems’) So here is my husband, we‘ll call him Walt, cause that’s his real name
holding Hazel incorrectly, (even after my ‘how to hold a chicken properly‘ demonstration) and I start soaking her lady parts with warm water. it was worse than I thought, the dingleberry was like a small petrified golf ball. I’m soaking her butt with water and my partner in grime is failing miserably to control her, so we decided to switch roles.
So by this time we have poo water everywhere, mainly on me, a mad wet hen (it’s true what they say about them) and my irritated husband, so things were going real well. Now I’ve got Hazel, holding her correctly and she immediately calms down and Walt starts cleaning her off. And then I hear it...a dull thud, the sound of the dingleberry hitting the plywood floor. I gasped, I think Hazel gasped too. It was done, we got rid of the first major hurdle! With the ginormous pooball gone, my husband went to work trimming her nether feathers, so this situation doesn’t occur again. He carefully clipped and snipped with me yelling to be careful every 10 seconds. With her derrière properly pruned, the only thing left was a nice blow dry of her bottom and she was done!
So, my takeaways from this experience: take care of poo issues immediately and i have the best husband in the world! By the way, Hazel is feeling and looking fabulous!
I’ll be the first to take the blame for not taking care of this much sooner. In my defense, I’m a new chicken keeper and I was nervous to tend to this issue, but I couldn’t take it any longer. So last night my husband and I decided to tackle Hazel’s massive dingleberry. Armed with a bucket of warm water, rubber gloves, sponges, and a blow dryer we prepared for battle. Walking outside, Hazel was immediately on to us, she knew something was up and she wasn’t going to have any of it. Just a 1/2 hour before she was okay with me near her and even let me pet her, but not now. She knew the battle of the dingleberry was about to take place.
After a couple of failed attempts to catch her, I finally grabbed the little heifer and brought her into our shed to start what I hoped to be an easy procedure. We decided my husband would hold Hazel and I would go to work mining a lode of poo off her butt. (side note: my husband tried to talk me out of having chickens for two years, telling me they’ll be nothing but problems...lol ‘butt problems’) So here is my husband, we‘ll call him Walt, cause that’s his real name
holding Hazel incorrectly, (even after my ‘how to hold a chicken properly‘ demonstration) and I start soaking her lady parts with warm water. it was worse than I thought, the dingleberry was like a small petrified golf ball. I’m soaking her butt with water and my partner in grime is failing miserably to control her, so we decided to switch roles.So by this time we have poo water everywhere, mainly on me, a mad wet hen (it’s true what they say about them) and my irritated husband, so things were going real well. Now I’ve got Hazel, holding her correctly and she immediately calms down and Walt starts cleaning her off. And then I hear it...a dull thud, the sound of the dingleberry hitting the plywood floor. I gasped, I think Hazel gasped too. It was done, we got rid of the first major hurdle! With the ginormous pooball gone, my husband went to work trimming her nether feathers, so this situation doesn’t occur again. He carefully clipped and snipped with me yelling to be careful every 10 seconds. With her derrière properly pruned, the only thing left was a nice blow dry of her bottom and she was done!
So, my takeaways from this experience: take care of poo issues immediately and i have the best husband in the world! By the way, Hazel is feeling and looking fabulous!
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