Chicken Spa Day..............

Welcome to Chicken Spa Day..........the washing of the 4-H show birds! Do chickens like to be washed...........ummmm, it depends. Below is Countrychick with Bo or is it Luke......I'm forever getting the names mixed up. She has two Modern Game roosters........the one below is either Bo or Luke.......He doesn't have a clue what he is in for.

First we set up our washing station.......my kitchen sink doubles as the "station." Yes, the chickens are being washed in the kitchen. I love my daughter and her birds........ very, very much! First stop is the foot bath and scrub, then we get a good dunk in the suds with a gentle wash. Then its off to the rinse cycle where we get a good dunk and lots of swishing......must get all of the suds off. Then we get a nice dip in the lemon water tub........yes, lemon water makes them shiny..........and makes them smell good too. Then we make a stop at the drying station. Yes, we are blow drying the birds. It helps them to dry faster, so they don't catch a chill. Can you tell this little guy is really enjoying his blow-dry.........This is Mumble......He is a bantam Light Brahma. He was named Mumble because when he was a cute little chick, he looked just like Mumble off of the movie Happy Feet. I bet he was wishing he had happy feet today so he could dance his way out of the water. He did not like his bath one bit......notice his hackles are up.Now this little bird was a sweetheart today........this is Dawn.......see today's earlier post and you will learn that Dawn did a "chicken run" earlier in the week. I figured she would launch herself out of the water and take off through the house today, but she was so good.........she sat through all of her washing and blowing drying and never made a peep............

This little fella...........ummmm, big fella took up the entire sink. He is only five months old, but I bet he weights a good eight pounds or so.........he is gonna be BIG!!!! Countrychick had a hard time holding onto him during his bath. He was pretty good though and only washed the kitchen window once or twice with the beating of his wet wings.This is Einstein..........he is Countrychick's "showmanship" bird. He is a Polish Cross. Gee, I will never complain about a bad hair day again.........just look at Stein.........poor fella. He was a trooper though and got through his bath without complaint.
We washed eleven birds in all today, plus put together posters for our fair decorations. It was a busy afternoon. Countrychick has six birds going to fair and my other little gals have five birds between them going. I can't wait to see how well they all do.............will try to post results on Saturday if possible. Tomorrow finds us heading to town to check-in our birds, decorate our space in the animal barn and practicing our showmanship skills in the barn. Saturday is the big show........it is going to be one very, very busy weekend. As I type this, there are six chickens in their cages behind me just snoozing away..........Come about 4 AM or so, five of those birds will be crowing.........inside the house!! I better go get some sleep while I can............because I'll be up with the chickens................no pun intended..............=)