Chicken bath

This evening, after wrestling with the mushroom logs, I gave Pop a bath. She has spent a lot of today half asleep and doesn’t seem to have got up on her legs as much as yesterday. Remembering that she perked up after having a bath a few days ago, I dashed home and came back armed with hot water. I poured all the hot water into a plastic box and topped it up with cold water and Epsom salts.

Pop wasn’t happy about me picking her up today. I checked her crop which had some food in bit not as much as I would like. She had a soft belly so no obvious signs of being egg bound either. As soon as I put her in the bath, she relaxed. I helped her put her feet out properly and sat watching her having a doze in her bath.

After about fifteen minutes, she stretched herself and managed to stand up fully albeit briefly. Ten minutes later, I took her out and wrapped her in a towel to dry her off. This was attempt to dry her was greeted with a display of disapprobation. As soon as I got the worst of the wet from her feathers, I put her back into the nest box with some fresh food and water. Hopefully she will wake up happier tomorrow.

Before I left, I couldn’t resist a chance to take a photo of Koko, Cliffs beautiful spaniel. He had disappeared off to check on his chickens and Koko was busy holding fort outside his shed.