Friday, July 06, 2012

Willow's makeover

Willow - my tiny weenie white Barbu d'Uccle  bantam, had been looking decidely muddy underneath.  She has long feathers on her feet and underneath her body - so I decided she needed a bath!

I expected her to put up a bit of a fight - hence my towel!
 But she didn't' - she absolutely loved it.   I chatted to her all the time,
And massaged all the mud off her - the water was filthy by the time I finished.
 I took her indoors, and she had another nice rinse in the kitchen sink.  As you can see she looked a  bit bedraggled right after - but a lot whiter! I took her into my garden studio, wrapped in a lovely warm towel, and talked quietly to her while I rubbed her dry.  She chirruped back to me all the time - and didn't even make a fuss when I trimmed her feathered feet and soft 'under carriage' feathers.
Just a word of warning if  you do this at home - be very very careful when trimming feathers - either wings of others.  If you cut into the feather shaft, not only will it hurt the chicken but will also bleed!  And could of course get infected.
So the above is Willow after her trim.

She sat on my lap on another warm towel and ate a handful of mixed corn from my hand and kept chirping away to me, and had a little doze.
Then she heard the rest of the flock so I put her down on the floor and out she went to join them in the evening sunshine!

5 comments:

  1. Ah bless her little feathered socks!
    Scabble ? looks like she want to know what's going off in the red trug!
    Just what I needed, a chicken fix!

    Have a great week!

    Sandie xx

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  2. Anonymous6:49 am

    She's a beauty! I wish my cats are more like her.

    Lee

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  3. love to see you birds. you giving the hen a bath gives new meaning to the phrase "mad as an old wet hen" of course You may not have that saying in UK. it comes from the habit of some of my grandmothers dipping a setting hen in the rain barrel to break up her broodyness. I doubt if it worked but the women of my grandmothers time thought it did.
    in their day a barrel set under the eves of the house to catch rain water for uses around the yard. they watered flower, animals and used the water to wash their hair. rain water was soft and much of the water around their homes was hard water. hard water has minerals that they pick up from running thro' the earth and rain water has less minerals hense soft water.of course our rain water has atomic parical so may not be so good now as was then.

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  4. Anonymous11:13 pm

    LOL Lottie! I never thought to do this to our hens and don't think they would have been so accommodating either :) Most of the hens we had didn't have feathers on their legs or feet except the silkies and they were most particular where they stepped. I think we had to treat our hens feet once for bumble foot and they all took exception to that though we didn't get pecked but they spent a long time resettling their feathers LOL
    Lynn xx

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