Is This Disease Or Rooster Abuse?

zebal

In the Brooder
Sep 15, 2015
12
0
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It has been a week or more since I really got close and loved on my chickens. My matriarch hen looks like she has been abused or has something ailing her. A little over a month ago I had 6 roosters reach sexual maturity and they were roughing up my ladies. I got rid of 4 and kept the two nicest ones and the roo/hen ratio is close to 1:8. Both roos are bantams so I expected the larger chickens would not have much to do with them. About half of the larger hens figure out a way to mate by laying down and the other half fight or run from roo advances.

Choco is my Orpington pictured below. She is what I call the matriarch of the group. She rarely fights and is hardly ever challenged by any other hen like they know she is the boss. She is the only hen that desperately wants affection from me. Some others will jump on my shoulder but Choco will follow me around and want to get in my lap. Once the roos reached sexual maturity they went after those lower on the pecking order. There were 5 bantams and 1 dark cornish roo. The day I saw blood on Choco's comb and missing feathers on the side of her neck I got rid of 4 the next day, keeping two bantam roos. Choco healed up in a couple weeks but recently I found her like this. A couple of the other larger chickens have similar marks on their waddles. So I am thinking due to the bantam's height when it tries to subdue the larger hens they pull at the waddles. Choco it about 5 times worse shape than any other hen. Notice the missing feathers on the breast which most makes me this it is rooster abuse--the top eyelid too. It is the lesions on the waddle and ears that make me question if it is a disease though.

I can take a little blood on a comb or waddle but this is abuse if a roo did it. Choco fled from me last time I saw her. I chased her down and put her in my lap and gave her a good look-over. After loving on her and telling her it was going to be okay she started acting more normal again.

So I am pretty sure I'm going to be getting rid of two gorgeous, sweet (least when handled by me) roosters. But as I have not physically seen any interaction between them and Choco and the weird way the lesions look on the ears and waddle I wanted to check the BYC knowledge. My thoughts are at least the head roo is trying to tear down my matriarch hen that won't lay down before him like the others do.








 
I don't see any real bad issues (lesions). Chickens fight all the time and get minor scrapes and scratches which heal quickly. As for the feather loss, if it was from a rooster, it wouldn't be on the breast. It looks more like molting to me. How old are they?
 
This is likely dry fowl pox. I'm seeing no indications of scabbing or feather loss typical of rooster injuries. The patchiness in her plumage is due to molting.

Dry fowl pox is actually one of the mildest contagious diseases. It will pass through the flock in 6-8 weeks. They will develop an immunity and will not be able to get it again. The only worry is if a scab pops up near the eye; this can result in blinding but thankfully they don't usually show up out the facial tissue.
 
Ah okay, the chicken is right about a year old. Maybe chicken pox got its name from dry fowl pox if you treat it the same by letting it run through them.
 
Not sure, but wouldn't doubt it. Daily egg production has dipped from 6-8 to 3-4 eggs per day. Like I mentioned, other hens have similar marking just not as bad. So it makes sense it is fowl pox. Just didn't know that even existed. Good ole BYC community knowledge sharing
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Haven't gotten rid of the 2 roos I ended up keeping that were on my suspect list for causing trouble.

When I had 6 roos they were over-mating this one bantam hen so bad she was nearly bald by the time I got rid of 4 of them. Helped even things out a lot and give some of the popular hens some breathing room.
 
Haven't gotten rid of the 2 roos I ended up keeping that were on my suspect list for causing trouble.

When I had 6 roos they were over-mating this one bantam hen so bad she was nearly bald by the time I got rid of 4 of them. Helped even things out a lot and give some of the popular hens some breathing room.

Because 6 roosters is way way too many, so they can't be blamed for that. With only two I would be more concerned that the roosters don't end up hurting eachother.
 

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