Chicken boarders

[Cloud9]

Hi all, just wondered if you could tell me how to keep my girls knickers clean!!! She seems to have a bit of a "claggy" bottom. I bought two new girls yesterday and they have spotless behinds.

 

Is it what I am feeding, the flooring of my run or what??

 

Hope you don't mind me asking

 

Ali

[Chucky1]

Hi Cloud9 - I fear I may be of little help, but its certainly not a stupid question.

 

One question from me (maybe stupid) have they been wormed recently?

[Cloud9]

My oldest girl (with the dirty knickers) is wormed regularly. I used to use Verm-X every month but last month I switched to Flubenvet.

[Egluntyne]

They might just need a bit of a botty wash occasionally. I use warm water and a bit of ecover washing up liquid, and then give them a good dry with an old towel.

[Cooks]

yes I used the same also used a hairdryer on a low low setting and held at a distance but they loved it.

Glad to see you;ve switched to flubenvet, you;ll have much better results with that.

[Cloud9]

Thanks all Do you think it could be due to the eglu being quite compact and her sitting in poo? I do clean them out regularly and always check the bars are clean every day? I've just been to a friends and she has loads of chickens and they all look spotless

[GGLGirls]

Very occassionally one of my girls will have such a runny poo that doesnt quite make it past her knickers, making her all messy.

I havent worried about it over winter as its usually worked its way off by means of dustbathing, however in summer I think I would probably give her a quick rinse as wouldnt like to invite beasties to nest there.

[Cloud9]

Thanks, I did think about giving her a nice warm bath to clean her up but as my new girls are very new I thought I'd give it a day or so for them to all settle in together and then spruce her up. Like you say I don't want to encourage beasties

 

I just wondered if there was any way I could prevent this happening? I hate to think I'm doing something to cause this.

[Stevie]

The rare occasion my old hens had dirty knickers i filled sink up with warm soapy water and dunked em'.They wasnt too impressed i must add!

 

Are any of the hens sleeping in the nestbox at night? I ask because they poo when asleep and if they lay in it the next morning-dirty botty!

 

ps.Nice to see another Cambridgeshire native!

[Cloud9]

Thanks Stevie She may have been sleeping in the nest box as she has been on her own for a few days? I'l give her a dunk in a day or two if the weather is nice and she how she goes. I just feel a bit of a failure with this chicken mallarky at the mo

 

Seem to be a few of us Cambridgeshire peeps at the mo! I am near Peterborough

[Sarahsausage]

I'm near Peterborough too! My Betty has dirty knickers at the moment I need to tackle them at the weekend I think!

[chickyhazel]

We had a chicken (RIP Chestnut ) who always had a dirty bum and it was because she slept in the nest box. We now make sure we go round once they have gone to bed and turf them out of the nestbox when they are too sleepy to do anything about it, and we haven't had a dirty bottomed chicken since!

[Lavenders_Blue]

I'm not far from Peterborough either! (perhaps we need a Peterborough get together )

 

I have spent 10 mins this afternoon snipping crusty bits of poo out of Bella's knicker feathers - delightful.

[chickyhazel]

Dunk her in a bucket of warm soapy water - it isn't that nice, but it works!

[Tutti Frutti]

Another with a chook who sleeps in the nestbox and has dirty knickers. Never had this problem when they were in the wooden coop with a nice big roosting bar - just since we switched to the Eglu.

 

And it would have to be the WHITE one

[chickyhazel]

Go out when they have gone to bed and turf them out. They do learn... eventually... most of the time...

[Cloud9]

Thanks all - Peterborough get together sounds great!!!!

 

Well I decided I couldn't look at her dirty behind any longer and bathed her this afternoon. I have to say she was really quite dirty and it was hard to get her clean but I think it is because she has laid a couple of softies recently that have broken through the bars and the white has stuck to her feathers like glue??? I think it's the stress of having had a poorly hen and then the loss of that girl and hopefully now she has new playmates she might start laying properly again.

 

Grit is on offer all of the time and I also grind some shells in my coffee grinder and mix that in with some warm food/poultry spice on occasions too.

 

Fingers crossed things will improve!!!

 

Thanks again

Ali