Blood in the coop

[J Hill]

I went to let my girls out and there was blood in a few different spots in the coop. None of the girls had blood on them and I didn’t see any injuries. I have seen a couple of mice in the coop, do y’all think they could have gotten a hold of a mouse?

 

[DobieLover]

Do you have any current molters? A damaged pin feather will bleed like that.
It wouldn't take much of a nick to a comb or wattle to leave that much blood either.
If mice are getting into your coop, you might want to go over the whole thing and beef up security.

 

[ellenscoop]

No, it looks like one of your birds was probably bleeding at some point. You may be hard to see where the wound is because it's dried up. I'd check their feet, as it looks like it may have been a foot wound.

 

[J Hill]

Do you have any current molters? A damaged pin feather will bleed like that.
It wouldn't take much of a nick to a comb or wattle to leave that much blood either.
If mice are getting into your coop, you might want to go over the whole thing and beef up security.

None are molting right now. We are working on getting rid of the mice. We do have chicken wire, pavers and then construction sand on the floor of the coop. The problem is they got in the run and then the coop. I think we are going to put hardware cloth on the run floor and dump sand on top to help with even less access to the coop for mice.

 

[J Hill]

No, it looks like one of your birds was probably bleeding at some point. You may be hard to see where the wound is because it's dried up. I'd check their feet, as it looks like it may have been a foot wound.

I will check them really close when they go in this evening. Thanks for your reply.

 

[micstrachan]

I had blood show up in the coop a few weeks ago and narrowed it down to a broken foot feather on a Brahma. We are talking about a LOT of blood.

 

[Eggcessive]

We all see mystery blood sometimes in the coop, but most of the time, it is from a broken blood feather or a pecked comb. If a comb is bloodied, there might be blood on a feeder or drinker where the comb has brushed by. If they are overcrowded, some may peck at a vent. So if you have checked and cannot find a source, it is probably resolved itself.

 

[J Hill]

I had blood show up in the coop a few weeks ago and narrowed it down to a broken foot feather on a Brahma. We are talking about a LOT of blood.

Thanks for the info.

 

[J Hill]

We all see mystery blood sometimes in the coop, but most of the time, it is from a broken blood feather or a pecked comb. If a comb is bloodied, there might be blood on a feeder or drinker where the comb has brushed by. If they are overcrowded, some may peck at a vent. So if you have checked and cannot find a source, it is probably resolved itself.

I hope it has resolved itself or was nothing to be concerned about because I couldn’t find anything and they all acted their normal silly selves lol. Thanks!

 

[micstrachan]

One of my original hens had a torn comb. I had chicken wire at the time and assume she caught it in the wire. OMG, that was a lot of blood! The back of her comb ended up dying and falling off, but she turned out fine with a shorter comb.

Anyway, it could have been a little comb injury in your coop.