07/27/2026
Great info for Poultry 🐓🏆🎡🎠
🍀 💚 PLEASE READ 💚 🍀 When to wash your bird……
This is a long one, but there’s lots of valuable information to the end!
4-H friends, if you are showing Cochins or Silkies or Brahmas or Orpingtons, or ANY OVERLY FEATHERED BREED, this post is especially for you!
I make posts all the time. Some are just for fun, but many have useful information directed to our youth exhibitors. I know everyone doesn’t see every post, but be sure to keep following and reading to get all you can for helpful tips, tricks and information before your fair.
⭐️ You can also use the search option at the top of the page to look for certain topics you may want to look up. Such as housing, conditioning, feed, breed choice, etc.
Today I want to talk about bathing your bird. 🛁
🐣 You’ve raised your chicks, given them proper space to grow, separated your males/females, and now you’re down to go time. It’s time to select your breeders and wash them up for the fair.
⏰ When should you do this? ➡️ Not the day before.
🐓 Cochins have SO many feathers and when you wash them they look like an ugly half drowned rat. It takes time for them to fluff back up and for their natural oils to recondition their feathers. Give them ONE WEEK to do this. That means washing your poultry project ONE WEEK prior to bringing them to the fair.
This can make the difference between champion and reserve! The fluffier the bird, the better.
After you wash your birds, seperate them and put them in a pen deeply bedded with shavings to keep them clean until the fair (that really goes for all birds).
Baby wipes are a great tool to use in that inbetween time. To keep the p**p off of their hind feathers. You may also consider a silk cloth to wipe down their feathers and smooth off the dust before the show. A soft baby brush may even come in handy to brush out their hind end after using a wipe, or even to smooth out or fluff up their skirting a bit.
📷 One of our 4-H ers learned this lesson in real time last year, and allowed me to share their pictures to help the rest of you! Learn from this opportunity. Pictures are worth a thousand words. Just look at how much this bird fluffed back up after 3 days! 🤩 (He still took 🥉 3rd overall!!)
Minnesota 4-H
4-H
National FFA Organization
