Some colours of Pekin Bantam are far easier to keep clean than other. Basic husbandry throughout the year will make washing birds for a show a much less daunting task. Washing a Pekin for show should be done about 4 to 7 days prior - so that the natural oils have time to come back to the feathers.

Colours such as black, mottled, birchen and so on will not have so many (if any) stained feathers on their feet. They still, however, need a good wash to bring out the colour and get rid of any dust and dirt that has built up.

1. The feet:
Firstly the toe nails need to be cleaned. To do this a cocktail stick is a good tool to get under then and bring out the dirt. Stand the bird an a bowl of warm water to loosen any dirt on the feathers - simply pulling at it could break the foot feathers, which is a fault. Scrub on top of the feather in the direction the feathers grow, then holding the bird carefully in one hand, take the cocktail stick and get any dirt from under the nails away.

2. The body:
Now the dirt fro the feet has been taken away and cannot mess the main washing water up, take a second bowl of water and fill it about 5 inches full. Place some soap flakes into it - Lux is a good one as it fluffs the feathers out (click here for info on Lux). It's an old soap but very good! For white birds Glo-White is also effective, it can even remove the brassiness done by a small amount of sunlight. This can be hard to find in shops now but you do drop lucky from time to time - so stock up when you see it.

Stand the bird in the water, hold it with one hand so that it feels comfortable. Make sure the soapy water gets right down to the skin, Pekin have lots of cushion and thigh fluff, so spend longer on these areas and these are what we want to fluff up.

Wash all around the vent area, and make sure you get under the wings, lots of people miss this area out. Wash as lose to the head as possible, but avoid getting soap in the eyes - it shouldn't hurt if you do but its best not to!

Now we can take the bird out and wrap it in a towel while we get the next bowl of water. This should be a bit cooler, but again, the same depth. Stand the bird in it an wash off all the soap. This is important as any left on could go sticky. Once all soap is off, again, wrap the bird in a towel and now we can move onto the last step.

In the third and final bowl we can add the special ingredients. In this bowl place, for darker colours with black feathers on, we can place a few teaspoons of vinegar. This will bring out the sheen on the feathers really well. If they are white / light feathers, some comfort should do a great job in rinsing, and will not go sticky either.

3. The Head:
The head is always pretty clean, so a quick rub over the wattles with some baby oil to brighten them up will be sufficient. If the eyebrows look a bit long then take some scissors and clip them so that both sides are level and do not look uneven and choppy.

Now comes the drying. Towel dry the bird to remove any drips. There are a few different methods of drying. Some people like to leave the bird in a wicker basket / box by a fire to dry naturally. This is fine so long as it is not able to fly out into the fire.

Other ways are to leave the bird in the sun, if you do this, make sure it is away from direct sunlight as it can tint the nice clean feathers!

Another way is to use a hairdryer. This method is the quickest if you are short on time. Simply dry the bird in the direction of the feathers on a low heat. When it comes to the cushion, you can blow dry the feathers from the opposite direction. This will fluff them out nicely.

Once you are happy with the wash, place the bird in a show pen or small individual coop which is clean and free from draughts. Any droppings should be taken out once or twice a day - every time you visit the bird.