RIP Vera

About a week ago Vera started to look a little peaky. She was a little unsteady on her feet, though her comb and wattles were still a good read colour. I picked her up and felt her, but she didn't seem overly thin, or lumpy in any of the wrong places, so I decided to see how things went. After two or three days she began a big moult so I thought maybe this was the reason she wasn't on top form.

She tended to stay in the roosting area in the morning, so I would look in on her and she would begrudgingly go down the ramp. Always a little unsteady, but otherwise seeming fine.

Last night she was lying under the bottom of the ramp. She seemed to be just resting, but I suspected the worst. At this point, I suppose were I able to despatch a chicken, this would be the time to do so. However I have never learned to do that. She didn't seem to be in any discomfort, just lying down, and the other chickens were ignoring her and certainly not bothering her, so I left her be. This morning I came down to a dead chicken.

I often wonder what is best. I could have taken her to the vet, but I have done that in the past, and the journey to the vets has pretty much finished the chicken off. On the whole, if they don't seem to be in any distress, it feels kinder to just let them drift off.

RIP Vera

Beautiful Hens

I'm getting a regular 3 eggs per day from my bantams. Lyra is broody so this is from Vera, Lulu and Velvet. Velvet (black bantam silkie) and Vera (gold laced bantam wyandotte) have always been the most stand-offish of the hens. I have only once managed to have Velvet eating out of my hand - she generally waits for the slippage from the other greedy girls to fall to the floor and hoovers that up. This means that it is particularly difficult to get a good photo of Velvet and Vera. However on a lovely sunny Sunday in the garden, I spotted the sun slanting through the late afternoon sky into their pen so I went in with then and waited patiently for them to look photogenic. I think I succeeded. Here are the results:

Maud, imperious as ever

A rare photo of Velvet

Vera, my last bantam wyandotte - gold-laced and handsome

Lulu looking fluffy

Washing my chicken

I decided today to wash my white Silkie. When I collected them, the garden they lived in had got really muddy and as the two Silkies had the run of the garden, they were already quite grubby. I knew I'd need to wash them and had read up a bit on it. It is really important to blow dry them especially if, as now, it is cold and wintery.

Chicken Washing Station

So, I prepared everything in advance. I put a little bit of soapy water in the kitchen sink, cleared the draining board and prepared an additional bowl of clear warm water for rincing. I also got the chicken towel ready.


First I stood Lulu on the draining board and tried to sponge the mud off her head. It worked to some extent but the feathers still looked brown. I then tried using a toothbrush (as advised) to clean her legs. The toothbrush worked really well at getting mud off the feathers. I stood her in the bowl of water and she didn't care for that very much and flapped a bit. I took her out and decided to lay her on her back so I could wash around the vent, feet and tail which were all very grubby.

Having laid her on her back with her head under my left arm, she seemed fairly calm although I could see her breathing was fairly fast. I gently washed away at the mud and poop stuck to her feathers. The toothbrush (soft) helped quite a bit here especially with the lumps. However once wet, the feathers still looked brown. I think I could probably have cleaned them up better with more soap, but I didn't want to get her too wet as I wasn't sure how easy it would be to dry her with the hair drier.

Chicken drying station

Having done as much as I could to her under carriage, I then stood her up and worked a little on her beard, under her chin. I had another go at her head and noticed that the feathers were quite cold. Her damp head had cooled off whilst I was working on her underneath so I decided now was the time to dry her off.

I wrapped her carefully in the towel and carried her to the dining room where I had positioned a spare dry towel, hairdryer and small cardboard box to stand her in if necessary. I had ended up standing her on the towel on the draining board so it had become quite wet in parts, although it was a large towel and much of it was still dry.

I sat on the chair with her wrapped in the dry towel on my lap and put my hand across her beak to protect her eyes and started blow drying her head. She didn't seem to mind particularly, and I could be sure not to over heat the feathers because my hand was in the air stream.

Looking pretty for the camera

I then lay her on her back to dry her underside, legs, vent and tail. This took ages (about 20 minutes maybe, I wasn't timing it). As the feathers dried off, they fluffed up beautifully by themselves. I didn't use a comb or a brush on them as I wasn't sure that you should with feathers. I moved the air around, stopping periodically to check with my hand whether the feathers were drying.

When wet, the feathers look like little sticks. As they dry, the ends fluff out like a dandelion and if feather is fairly clean, ultimately the whole feather is fluffy. There were still some that I'd not cleaned properly that never fluffed up, particularly the feed feathers. However they all still looked much better than before.

Next time I'll be more confident and wash her more thoroughly. Still, I'm pleased with my first attempt.