A visit to the Chicken Spa

Good Friday morning to you all!!! This may sound funny, but I love Friday for a different reason than most. It's garbage day!! I feel like we get a clean slate. No more trash!! Lol. I'm sitting here writing this post listening to the clunk, squeak of the sanitation truck in front of my driveway! Yay!! Okay, I'm doing things a bit different today. My hubby leaves for work at the ungodly hour of 4:30am. He loves his Bacon and egg breakfast sandwiches, so it's up at 4:00 for me. When he leaves, with sandwich in hand and warm coffee in his belly; I have almost three hours of *me time*. During this time, I usually get ready for the day, shower, dress, make my bed, clean my hubbys mess in the office, and then sit down and try to watch a few of my favorite TV shows I've DVRed. It's never dawned on me, for some reason, to work on the blogs during this quiet time. So today I guess I've done had myself an idea!! Lol. Second difference, this isn't a recipe. we will not be looking at pretty, fresh ingredients. We will not go step by step into a Yummy dish. Instead, we will be delving into the world of insects and waste. Yup, we're talkin creepy crawlies and poop!! Ready? Hold your nose, and get ready for a case of the itchies!!

It's a morning like any other. A few of my girls are early risers, and layers. I'm gathering the few early eggs, and getting ready to clean the coop and give the girls a treat(yes, they are incredibly spoiled, so much so if I don't clean and treat daily, they will not lay at all!)

Today, its pear and zucchini leftovers, and a bit of berry kefir.

As I went to pet sweet little J-baby, I saw a chicken lover's nightmare. Chicken Mites!!!! Oh no, tiny, biting, blood sucking monsters! Ugh. Well, we try as hard as we can to stay organic, without pushing it to a level that hurts us or our animals. We do not use herbacides, we pull weeds. As a general rule we don't use pesticides. So plan of action, wood ash, baths, and diligence in cleaning...

We are in for a long day, and truthfully, most other chores are going to get behind, but here we go. Logan gathers the eggs, as I grab a few veggies for tonight's supper.

I sent Logan in to go change into scrubby clothes while I weeded the garden a bit, and when he returned there was one more egg.

Out of my five girls (no roosters allowed in Good Ol Rio Vista:( Only two have mites bad, but it is just a matter of time if we don't get on it now, before all are ill and loosing feathers.Here is J-baby's back. If you look closely, you can see tiny white specks. Those are the young mites.

Here, even though hard to see, Goldy Locks has them even crawling on her wings. Poor baby!!

The top of J-baby's head, next to her ear where I saw the first mite.

My laziest hen, Goldy Locks, is always laying down. She rises to eat and drink. I don't see her rear end often. So as I inspected all of the girls, I was shocked to see how many feathers she has lost just under her vent.

If I had been a better chicken mommy, I'd have done this as I brought new girls home from the breeder, but only two weeks before I had purchased three hens from the same breeder and they were fine. Well I am doing it now. As I spread Goldy Lock's tushy feathers, I gasped. At the base of every remaining feather was a bundle of mite eggs. Oh my goodness, there were so many!!! *sniff sniff* Well, if you aren't feeling itchy yet, just wait. Ha Ha!!

Remember its around 8am, no make-up, work clothes, and glasses....the chickens got all the primping today!! So I started with the girls who had little to no mites. I was trying to get them done quickly, so I could focus more on the hens who needed TLC. This is Jade, Logie's chicken. She is a huge Rhode Island Red, about 8 months old. She liked her bath, but strongly objected to holding still as I used the blow dryer to dry her off. On the ladies who had no mites, I simply used Dawn dishwashing liquid.

This delicate little one is Victorious. The breeder I got her from also breeds Goldendoodles. Somehow little Victorious, or Tory wandered into a dog pin, and had to be rescued from the mouth of a rambunctious pup. As a result, she has a few perilous injuries. The most sever being a compound fracture of the left hip/thigh. Had anyone there known how extensive the injuries, I am sure they would have put her down. The wound has healed completely, but horrifically. She gets around with ease. Her eyes are bright. She is thriving, but the bone has healed outside of her skin!!

As this little girl was set into the water, she just melted. She floated and floated. I felt mean taking her out. I just still had so much to do. I think the warm water helped her feel better, and the floating took weight off her hip.

Jade is preening up a storm. It is as if she knows how pretty she looks clean, and is going to pick up where I left off, Apparently I do not do it as well as she!

So as Victorious floats, The two washed and dried birds, D.B. Pecker (Dayton's hen) and Jade are running around the warm restroom pooping everywhere!! Oh the mess they made!!

When you are blow drying a chicken it can be completely different each bird's turn. This is Jade shaking her head "no!" at me.

Jade also turned around, aimed her tail at the mirror, and let 'er rip in protest! This was the filthiest bathroom in the history of all my bathrooms!

To add insult to injury, Jade then ran across the counter, knocked the girls cup over, and tried to tuck herself in the sink!

D.B. Pecker, on the other hand didn't seem to mind or love the blow dry. She just stood there and looked at me like I had grown 6 heads!!

D.B. Pecker is the head hen in this small community of fowl. She is ornery, and a complete bully to the other girls, but a treasure to hold, pet, and play with. She is our best layer, and very cocky.

She knows how good she looks here. Boy if you could have seen her strut her stuff!!!

Here is Goldy Locks. She is a lemon Orpington. She is the only hen we have that isn't a Rhode Island Red, and occasionally she is ostracized. i am looking for another orpington to keep her company. Any ways, she is my chicken. My baby. Worst layer in the hen house, impatient, and loud, not to mention lazy. But today she was the Queen of Sheba. She, and Jenna's girlie J-baby, had the mite infestations. So for them, instead of just counting on the wood ash dust baths they take in the coop, I used flea and tick dog shampoo, to try to jump start the annihilation of the minute vampire buggers.

Now, you wanna talk about different experiences with blowing the girls dry?!? Goldy Locks LOVED it!! Never before have I seen a chicken roll forward, to rest on her breast and stretch her legs out behind her, but Goldy Locks just fell into this strange position and fell into a sort of hypnotic state. She seriously would have laid there all day, with her bum in the air, letting me warm and fluff her pretty golden feathers. I couldn't get her to move. I couldn't get to her breast feathers, so I had to lift her. I had to manipulate her wings manually. When I finished, I had to pick her up, and rest her on the ground.

I started this project early. At 4;00 pm my son was on his was out the door to go to football practice, and I was just finished scrubbing the coop, changing the bedding, feeding and watering the girls, and putting them back into the coop. What a day this was, but again, like most days, I was amazed by the completely different attitudes and personalities each of these birds have. They are each one different as night and day. Well, This fried Okie is pooped, pooped on, and itchy all over. I'm gonna hit the shower, and say to y'all...I hope your kitchen is warm, your bathroom is clean, and your chickens bug free! Heartfelt hugs to all of you, and hurry back for great eats at this Fried Okie's Suburban Kitchen!!