the downside (or is that backside?) of backyard chickens

Mucking out a poopy coop isn't exactly high on my list of fun jobs. Trying to nurse two frail chicks dying at a miserably slow pace, then figuring out how to discard their lifeless, still-warm bodies? Definitely not enjoyable.

Taking a chicken with a prolapsed oviduct (don't even ask) to the vet in a borrowed dog carrier? Pretty high on the list of awkward moments. Yes, move on over Bruno and Fifi. Here comes a.... Wait a minute, is that a chicken?

But last Friday, I may have experienced the pièce de résistance. I got the lovely job of de-poopifying a chicken butt. Yes, you heard that right. For several weeks, Ameraucana Poofy-Cheeks has had a wee problem with her backside, i.e. the entire thing is a waterfall of calcified poop. It seemed to go along with her molting extravaganza.

Chickens being the vicious lords of the flies that they are, Zebra has taken this perceived weakness as an opportunity to harass poor Ameraucana--pecking her, jumping on her.

So, yes, the de-pooping job, aka a butt bath, had to be done. By me. Let's just say it took rubber gloves, a lot of warm water, and the inner mantra, "Well, it's not as bad as changing a poopy diaper."

And all for these....

 

Which are, in case you're wondering, usually perfectly clean when we get them from the nesting boxes. For all the poopage that seems to happen 24/7 in chicken-land, there's rarely even a speck of poop in the nesting boxes. Something to do with birds not fouling their own nests....

They are awfully cute. I do love their fluffy (clean) Victorian bums.