Washing Your Chicken

[bajabirdbrain]

Our girls are now 9 months old and live a pretty controlled life. They have a nice coop with a sand floor, their run WAS nice grass but now there isn't anything green left in it now, just bare dirt. The run is completely covered with corrugated roofing so the run does not get wet from the rain or the few inches of snow we get.

When the girls get their daily free ranging, they have either grass or into the woods for native brush scratching. Well, yesterday the head chicken, aka, Bajabirdbrain, decided it would be nice to wash the feet, comb, and waddles of the girls!! My function was to hold the victim in a towel, put their feet into warm water while BB washed their feet with warm water and mild soap. We then rinsed with warm water and applied a light coating of coconut oil. Next was a wash cloth with warm water and gently washing the comb/waddles and face. Again, coconut oil was applied. Now during this procedure I would sooth the victim with a few pieces of cooked spaghetti and several live mealworms. This was an attempt at keeping the girls from hating us.

Anyway, we did 6 girls yesterday and 5 today to complete the cleansing. They all looked beautiful and it appears they don't hold any grudge against us they still swarm us for more mealworms, whew. Of course shortly after their cleaning several of the gals visited their kiddie swimming pool filled with wood ash, peat moss, and sand for a nice dust bath.

What do others do, if anything with their chickens? We are not fanatical about their grooming but our initial interaction with chickens happened a few years ago when we were taking care of one neighbors chickens while they were on vacation. A couple of the chickens had caked on poop and BB couldn't stand to have that. We bathed their bums and got them cleaned up, even blow drying a couple because of cold weather, sigh. So far our girls have had good toilet hygiene and haven't needed body cleaning.

Ok, that is it for now. Got to get ready for New Years and wish ALL Happy New Year!!!

 

[KentuckyRooster]

I have house birds. They take regular baths complete with blow drying, and every day if they have poo feet when they come out of the cage, they get foot washed. If they get poo bums from dropping a cecal in their diapers, they get butt washes. They are spoilt.

 

[bajabirdbrain]

More info about having "house birds"? And diapers, please. Now about you describing them as "spoilt", we may need to have a competition to see who has the most spoilt!!

#1. Hot breakfast every morning-oatmeal, raisins or grapes, etc.
#2. Brunch=some kale, a hanging sliced apple, sliced cucumber, sometimes cabbage, a combo of wild bird seed, black oil sunflower seeds, AND live mealworms all mixed together and then small amounts tossed around the run to keep from over crowding.
#3. Daily free ranging with chaperone, sometimes armed with .38 S&W Special. Boiled and oiled spaghetti, cut into 1"+ pieces for treats AND to lead them back to the run. An ear of corn on a skewer in a stand.
#4. Worm o'clock, late afternoon BB and I go into the run and sit at opposite ends with small dixie cups with live mealworms. Each of us has 2 special girls that sit on our laps as we dole out the worms to everybody.

I'll stop here and see if you can compete or not!!!

 

[robinwhiskers]

When it's warm I might try washing a few of my tamer girls.

 

[bajabirdbrain]

To be more specific we haven't washed the entire chicken. First experience was just washing the bum where poop sort of cemented its self to the feathers. Recently we decided to wash their feet by putting feet into warm water. Then a wash cloth dipped in warm water to wipe off their comb/waddle, and face. Only one out of 11 was a protester.
Key was to get a small hand towel or ? wrapped around their wings, no flapping then.