The Chickens Get a Bath
Aug. 31st, 2015 03:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tiger_spotI have now bathed the chickens. I've been meaning to for some time, and have finally gotten around to it. They both had crustiness in the feathers around their vents, which dust bathing and preening was not taking care of, so I stepped in with warm water and soap.
Bathing a chicken is actually surprisingly easy. If I'd realized it would be this quick I'd've done it earlier. They were not precisely cooperative, but I would characterize their responses as puzzled, perhaps offended, rather than panicked or angry, so one hand on top to minimize flapping and one hand in the bucket agitating the water underneath was quite sufficient. The internet advised me to use very warm water and I think that helped.
We'll see how they look when they dry out, and whether they can keep that area clean on their own now or whether we'll need to repeat the procedure in the future. But for now I am quite satisfied with the chicken bathing experiment.
Bathing a chicken is actually surprisingly easy. If I'd realized it would be this quick I'd've done it earlier. They were not precisely cooperative, but I would characterize their responses as puzzled, perhaps offended, rather than panicked or angry, so one hand on top to minimize flapping and one hand in the bucket agitating the water underneath was quite sufficient. The internet advised me to use very warm water and I think that helped.
We'll see how they look when they dry out, and whether they can keep that area clean on their own now or whether we'll need to repeat the procedure in the future. But for now I am quite satisfied with the chicken bathing experiment.
