11.00am - Monday 22nd February 2016 10,864

Please stop hurting your chickens. Knitting sweaters for chickens, while a cute idea, is actually very bad for the chickens.

In the winter chickens grow a thicker layer of down (soft fluffy feathers) to help themselves trap the heat created when they metabolize their food. If you put a sweater on a chicken it compresses the down and pushes their heat out. It also lends itself to increased chafing, increased potential for topical parasites, doesn't allow the chicken to clean itself, and is all around a bad idea.

Anthropomorphize: When you talk about a thing or animal as if it were human, you're anthropomorphizing it. The Easter Bunny is an anthropomorphized rabbit.

Remember that chickens evolved before the invention of Pinterest. They don't need sweaters. If the chicken is bald then you shouldn't have it out in an environment where it can get that cold. It needs to grow back the feathers naturally or if it is really that sick and injured then it might need to be put down humanely.

I'm very passionate about the health and well-being of my livestock and chicken sweaters drive me bonkers.

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