The Big Day - Chicken Baths!

Well, the big day finally arrived - bathing our chickens.

Why do you need to bathe a chicken you might ask? Well, normally, you wouldn't need to unless you are going to show your chicken at the fair. And that's what Boyson is set to do in just two months. So we went over to our 4-H leader's house and she showed the kids (and me!) how to bathe a chicken.

It really went a lot better than I had imagined. I expected there to be a whole lot more wing-flapping and water flying, but I was very proud of how well-behaved "my girls" were, despite this being their very first time.

Buffy went first. These buckets really were not big enough for our standard size birds, but we made the best of it. You start with a bucket of very warm soapy water. The idea is to submerge the chicken up to it's neck and soap it all over. It is amazing how much dirt is hidden under their feathers. As you can see in some of the pictures, the water gets quite dirty. Then in the middle tub, you rinse the chicken in very warm water with a little vinegar mixed in. The vinegar helps to get all the soap out of their feathers. Then you rinse them in a third bucket of not-quite-as-hot water.

Toothbrushes work great for scrubbing the dirt off their feet and legs.

When you are all done washing, you snuggly wrap your chicken in a towel, wiener wrap style. (I guess you could call this a Chicken-Snuggy!)

If it's snug, they cannot get out of this wrap, and will actually fall asleep there if you leave them long enough.


Then it was Suzy's turn.


Back at the farm, the girls are all clean and dry. The most dramatic difference, of course, is our white chicken Buffy. She really sparkles after her bath. I didn't get any post pictures of Suzy; she went to lay down . . . it was such a big day!


So there you have it . . . chicken baths.


While we're on the subject of chickens, and so the other two don't feel left out, here are a couple of shots of them:

This is Penny. She likes to stand on the water jug. She's the only one who does it. She's so funny!

And that's Ginger on the right (the black and white one). She's so skittish it's hard to get pictures of her.