Adapt, Recycle, Reuse: Chicken Diapers

She is completely ‘unbovvered’.

The strings around the wings.

Adapt, Recycle, Reuse: Chicken Diapers: The business end of a “chicken diaper”

Last year (2019) in October I bought four boxes of fabric face masks. I was not anticipating pandemic; I was using them for collecting chicken waste in an experiment I was running at Mezzacello.

Chicken Diapers

I call them Chicken Diapers. The premise is very simple; The ear straps go over the wings and the face mask proper goes behind the chicken. An elegant solution to chicken waste issues - especially after I have sterilized the hen yard and I have guests coming through. I don’t want poo everywhere.

The diaper is of course temporary — like all diapers. I should also point out that the “chicken diapers” I had collected changed back to face masks immediately when they were needed. In fact this is a used mask.

I needed a demonstration model. The masks are useful like when I need a to keep dust out of my lungs and mouth when I clean a space or I make a visit to a school or such. Chickens are pigeons that lay bigger eggs.

They do tend to crap everywhere. I laugh now. But I can’t believe how valuable those chicken diapers became in the early days of the COVID19 scare.

Everything Has Value If You Look

Any farmer worth his salt will tell you everything has value. Being an urban gardener and farmer requires a lot of equipment and resources. And it’s hard to keep it neat and organized.

It’s what makes the livestock and potager gardens (North Korea) at Mezzacello look so messy. But I can honestly say in this case, I am so happy I saved these chicken diapers. Now I need to figure out how to keep my ducks in line.

Those Saxony Duck hens have really big booties! The Kim Kardashians of poultry. More on that later!