Read Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens Online
Authors: Gail Damerow
Constant showing causes stress, and stress is not conducive to bloom (or to good fertility in the breeding pen). If you plan to attend a large number of shows, rotate the birds you condition rather than expecting all your potential winners to compete at all the shows.
No less than 2 months before the show, treat each potential winner for lice infestation and move it to its own small house with a grassy run. Although chickens need some sunshine for good health, show birds should not spend hour after hour in direct sunlight. Sunshine can fade the plumage of solid buff or red breeds and those of red background color and give a brassy yellow metallic hue to white or blue plumage.
While you’re moving each bird to individual housing, examine its plumage and remove the occasional broken or off-color feather. To avoid injuring the feather follicles, never yank out a wing or tail feather. Instead, cut off the broken feather, leaving a 2-inch (5 cm) stub, then cut the shaft down the middle toward the skin. After a few days the feather will loosen, and you can pull it out easily.
Unfortunately, incorrect coloring often shows up in flight feathers of the wing or sickle feathers of the tail, and these feathers take a long time to grow back, so allow at least 2 months. The feather that grows back may be the right color or may not be; in either case the bird should be fully feathered by the time of the show. Because points will be deducted if the feather is the wrong color, the bird may need to be removed from the show string if the color is too far off.
Sooner or later all experienced exhibitors develop a custom diet for their show birds, taking into consideration, among other things, the desired weight for their breed and the effects of certain feeds on plumage color. A good starting place is basic breeder ration.
Do not feed yellow corn, especially to white varieties or those with white ear-lobes. Corn tends to run to fat, and its pigment gives white birds a brassy hue. Feed no additional grain other than whole oats, offered free choice in a hopper separate from the breeder ration. Whole oats improve feather quality without making a bird fat. Be sure to offer granite grit as well, so the bird can digest the oats.
To stimulate natural oil production and give your bird a radiant glow, or bloom, include a small amount of oil-rich feed, such as safflower seed, sunflowerseed,
flax, or linseed meal. To further enhance the gloss of varieties with black or red plumage, feed a tiny amount of quality canned cat food daily, preferably offered as a treat during coop training.
A chicken’s plumage color can be enhanced, and the fluffiness of loosely feathered breeds emphasized, by washing. Light-colored birds should always be washed before a show. Dark-colored tightly feathered varieties may need a thorough washing only if their plumage is soiled.
Wash a chicken no less than 48 hours before a show, giving feathers time to get back some of their natural oil and giving you time to fix such goofs as streaking or improper shaping. A good plan if you’ve never washed a chicken before is to wash one or two practice chickens ahead of time, just to get the hang of it, so you don’t run the risk of ruining your potential winner just before a show. Washing a chicken takes 15 or 20 minutes.
I like to wash chickens in the laundry room. It’s a warm, draft-free place to work and has a deep basin with plenty of warm running water. Others prefer to work in the garage or, if the weather is nice, outdoors, using three tubs filled with clean water — one for washing, two for rinsing.
If possible, use soft water, which cleans birds better than hard water. Begin with a basin full of warm water (90°F [32°C]). The temperature is right if you can hold your elbow in it without discomfort. Water that’s too hot can cause a bird to faint. If a bird should happen to faint, revive it by pouring a little cold water over its head.
Place one hand against each of the chicken’s wings so it can’t flap and give you the bath, and slowly immerse the bird to its neck. If it struggles, dip its head briefly under water. Most birds relax as soon as they realize they’re in for a warm, soothing bubble bath.
Add enough shampoo or mild liquid dish soap to the water to whip up a good head of suds. Don’t use a harsh detergent, which makes feathers brittle. I’ve had great results with flea and tick shampoo for household pets, which not only gets birds shiny clean but also zaps any lice or mites that may have gone unnoticed.
Thoroughly soak the bird by raising and lowering it and drawing it back and forth through the water. With a sponge, soak the feathers through to the skin. To avoid breaking feathers, make sure they are thoroughly soaked before doing any rubbing, and work only in the direction they grow. Rub in extra lather around the tail, where feathers tend to be stained by the oil gland, and around the vent. When the chicken is thoroughly clean, lift it from the bath and press out soapy water with your hands, working from head to tail.
Most chickens learn to enjoy a warm, relaxing bubble bath.
If you’re washing a crested bird, hold it upside down by its legs, and dip the crest into the soapy water, keeping the bird’s beak and eyes above water. Work suds into the topknot, or if the crest feathers are particularly dirty, apply a drop of shampoo directly to the topknot. Rinse the crest under running water to remove all traces of soap, taking great care not to get any into the bird’s eyes or nostrils. Washing a crest is easier if two people work together, one holding the bird while the other washes the head feathers.
With the plumage thoroughly washed, rinse the whole bird in fresh warm water that’s slightly cooler than the wash water. Let the bird soak for a few minutes, until its feathers fan out or float, then move it back and forth in the water to work out remaining soap. Lift the chicken from the rinse, and press out excess water.
If any soap remains, the feathers will look dull and faded when they dry and the plumage won’t fluff out properly. So rinse the bird once more. This time add a little vinegar or lemon juice to remove any remaining soapy residue or feather oil.
If you’re washing a white bird, brighten its plumage by adding two drops of liquid laundry bluing to this final rinse. To prevent streaking, thoroughly stir the bluing into the full basin of water before rinsing the bird. And remember, more is not better — add more than two drops and your white bird will turn blue.
Squeeze out excess water from the feathers, and gently towel the bird off. Wrap the bird in a fresh towel, and blot it to soak up remaining water.
After the bird’s shanks and feet have been soaked, dirt and scales will be soft and easy to clean. Even if you don’t wash the whole bird, at least soak its shanks and feet in warm water. Leg scales molt annually, just as feathers do, and you can easily remove dead semitransparent brittle scales by popping them off with a nail file, a toothpick, or your thumbnail. If any dirt is clinging beneath the scales or toenails, gently and carefully remove it with a toothpick. Use a toothbrush and soapy water to scrub the shanks and toes. A little scouring powder may be used on rough spots, but take care not to rub too hard and cause bleeding.
To groom a chicken after giving it a bath, tightly wrap it in a dry towel with only its head showing, taking care not to bend any feathers with the towel. Cover the feet with one corner of the towel so you can open the flap to work on one leg and foot at a time.
Clean the bird’s comb and wattles with a little rubbing alcohol mixed with an equal amount of water, being careful not to get any into the bird’s eyes. Dry the comb and rub it with a bit of baby oil, vitamin E oil, or a mixture of equal parts alcohol and olive oil (but not petroleum jelly, which gets feathers greasy and gathers dust). Gently buff the comb until all the oil has been worked in, being careful not to get oil on any feathers.
Use a toothpick to clean around the bird’s nostrils. If the upper beak is a little too long, trim it back to proper length (see
page 143
) for beak and nail trimming instructions). When grooming a breed with white earlobes, such as Leghorn, Minorca, or Rosecomb, coat the washed and dried earlobes with a little baby powder to keep them clean.
A light dusting of baby powder on white earlobes, such as on this Rosecomb cock, helps keep the birds’ earlobes clean.
Now turn your attention to the legs and feet. Trim long nails with clippers or nail scissors. Excessively long toenails must be trimmed in several stages, allowing a few days between each trimming for the quick to recede; if you wait until the last minute before a show, you’ll run out of trimming time. Rub the cleaned feet and shanks with the same oil used on the comb, again taking care not to get any on the feathers.
Release the cleaned, groomed bird into a clean training coop or a roomy pet carrier strewn with fresh shavings. The drying coop must be scrupulously clean, as any dirt that touches damp feathers may cling. To avoid soiled or damaged feathers, put only one bird in each coop.
Dry a crested variety in a container high enough that the topknot won’t rub against the top. A feather-legged variety needs a roomy drying coop to avoid breaking foot feathers against the side. A cardboard box works better than a wire cage, or place a rim of heavy cardboard around the bottom few inches of a wire cage to protect leg feathers from the wire.
You can dry birds outdoors, provided the temperature is at least 70°F (21°C) and either the weather isn’t breezy or the birds have good wind protection. If you’re drying loosely feathered birds like Cochins or Silkies, you can speed things up, as well as nicely puff out the feathers, with a hair dryer. A blow dryer also works well to fluff up a crest. Always use the warm, not the hot, setting.
After a bath, a loosely feathered breed like this Silkie may fluff up nicely with a blow dryer set on warm.
A tight-feathered breed like this Old English bantam looks best when allowed to dry naturally in a warm area away from any drafts.
Most breeds, though, look better if they dry naturally. Fluffing plumage with a hair dryer can be downright disastrous in tight-feathered breeds like Cornish, Modern Game, or Old English Game. In cold weather that may chill your damp birds, place the drying coops in a warm room well away from the heater, so they won’t dry so quickly that the feathers curl. In an unheated room, hang a heat lamp no closer than 2 feet (60 cm) above each bird.