Should I clean my chickens' faces?

[liz_s]

Hello!

It has been raining cats and dogs here in Eastern Washington! My chickens don't seem to mind the rain, but because they're foraging in the wet grass, their faces are filthy and they're pretty wet! The rain doesn't look like it's going to let up anytime soon, and I have two concerns. One: the inside of their coop is dry, so is it okay that when they go in to roost they're still damp? It's around 50 degrees outside, and so far they're fine, I'm just not sure if I should take extra care to dry them off. Two: Should I clean their dirty faces? There's nowhere for them to take a dust bath or anything, so I'm not sure how they'll get clean otherwise.

Any advice or ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Liz

 

[lotzahenz]

If you are able to clean theier faces off, it might be a good idea. They should be fine damp at 50 deg. in the coop, or each night you could take an old towell and dry them off and clean the face at the same time. If you have a whole bunch of birds, I'd just let them be. If you want a dust bath for them, make one out of a very small plastic swimming pool and fill it half way with peat moss. They LOVe that. HenZ