Wet Muddy Chicken

The rains lat week have certainly made everything pretty muddy around here. Looking at the news it's pretty obvious that we got off lightly.

Floods down the lane we live down. And people ask why I drive a 4x4...

 The worst that happened around here was that some roads were blocked by floods and the school got shut for half a day, more because I think the teachers were worried about how they'd get home than any risk to the children. It gave them a cosy afternoon watching a film - until a friend rang to say he'd run out of fuel!

On the Friday morning I went to move my 25 meat chickens and I could see instantly that I had 24 white chickens and one that was brown and crusty...

It didn't look happy so I got it out the pen and under a heat lamp with some food and water. Chickens can be terribly cruel at times and will pick on one individual if they show any signs of weakness, I should imagine that's how it got covered in mud in the first place.

The heat lamp solved the problem of it being cold and a little pathetic, but it left it pretty much encased in mud. Something I would need to sort out before putting it back with the others.

Saturday ended up being a very different day than was planned. I had planned on working on my brothers kitchen but instead my wife went on a mindfulness and wellbeing course while I had a great day with the kids. They had their ballet classes in the morning (where I got to play cards while waiting), we went to the park, had a cooked lunch and ended up washing a chicken! Normal day around here...

Whole bunch of carrots from the grocers gone before we got home!

I don't think I've ever washed a chicken before and I think it's fair to say that this chicken was not keen on the experience.  In hot soapy water the mud soon came off, the children found the whole thing hilarious, especially when it pooed in the water. Not going to say I didn't laugh either!

It then dried off back under the lamp and I added it back in under the cover of darkness to the rest of the flock while they fed. I can't even tell which one it is now so I'm pleased. Sometimes these Ross Cobb birds can be a bit highly strung like racehorses and it doesn't take much to make them drop dead!

So who else has washed a chicken?

Have the floods affected you much?