Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

A day of preening! All birds like to keep clean and well groomed and our chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese (the latter is NOT pictured) spend an awful lot of their time preening their feathers to keep them in tip top condition. At the base of their tail feathers is a gland from which an oily substance oozes out: this is picked up by the beak and then spread all over the feathers to keep them clean, moist and flexible. Preening also helps to straighten the feathers and put them 'back together' where the individual 'barbs' have become slightly separated. If you get hold of a feather you can separate and put back the barbs yourself.
Feathers that are kept in good condition help to keep the bird warm and water resistant. Preening also involves finding and removing any 'debris' caught in amongst the feathers: dead skin, any lurking minibeasts, etc. The lovely thing is that preening is often a very sociable activity and our birds all have favourite places where they 'hang out' and have a communal preening session!!!
Unlike other animals, e.g. monkeys, they never preen other birds, they just preen themselves: they just seem to prefer to be in a group when doing it. Everywhere we turned today we saw small groups preening away. Wonderful!!