How to Get Your White Chickens Really Clean

Getting white chickens clean for shows can be difficult, especially if their feathers are stained. But there’s one trick that can really make your white birds shine, a popular laundry detergent liquid!

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Tide with Bleach Alternative
• Three pails or buckets
• Water
• Vinegar
• Towels
• A blow dryer

1. Fill all three buckets with warm but not hot water. Find a warm and draft free place to wash your birds. I like to use my laundry room when it's cool out, or in the summer we wash birds outside.

2. 
    
   White vinegar to cut the soap

   Into the first bucket pour about a ¼ cup of Tide with Bleach Alternative. Into the second pour about ¼ cup of white vinegar. Nothing in the third, it is the final rinse bucket.

3. 
    
   Tide

   Place your chicken gently into the into the first bucket (but do not cover the head), swishing it up and down to get the feathers wet. Put some Tide with Bleach Alternative into your hand and gently brush it onto the bird, stroking in the direction of the feathers, not against the grain.

4. Work the laundry detergent liquid in, paying attention to the vent area and the toes. Be careful with the area around the eyes, best to just use a washcloth to wipe the head area. Use the toothbrush to scrub the toes and legs, get all the crud off of them.

5. Let the Tide with Bleach Alternative soak into the feathers for about five minutes or so. This time to soak is important for the stain removal to really work. The chemical makeup of the detergent is the real secret here, it actually causes the light to reflect better in some way, so that the bird appears even whiter than it really is.

6. 
    
   Bantams Drying

   Transfer the bird to the second bucket, swishing up and down to get the soap off (the white vinegar helps with this a lot.) Then put into the third bucket for a final rinse. Wrap the bird in a towel, leaving the head and feet sticking out. Sit with it on your lap (you will get wet) and finish any other prep work that needs to be done (trim toes and beak.) If you have a number of birds to wash, you can roll them into towels to dry a bit before using the blow dryer on them. I like to use Egyptian cotton towels, they seem to really soak the water up well.

7. 
    
   Using the blow dryer

   Using the warm (not hot) setting on the blow dryer, dry the chicken so that it is almost dry (you won't get it all the way dry.) Place it into a crate with shavings in a warm, non-drafty place to finish drying (this may take several hours.) Once the bird is completely dry, return it either to the cage or its clean pen.

Tips & Warnings

• Wash only two or three chickens at a time, don't let the water get too cold.
• Soft water is easier than hard water on the birds feathers.
• Check your birds for mites and other external parasites before washing them.

[MizGreenJeans]

on 9/25/2009 Thanks for your comments on my article: How to Get Your White Chickens Really Clean.

[carolj1]

on 9/25/2009 Wow! I never knew people washed their chickens. This is good stuff. 5* Carol