blood on feeder???

[kelzey]

i went out to check on the girls this morning- collect eggs, remove ice from water and refill it, and all of that. and i looked at their feeder and there’s random dried blood on it? that led me to check on each of my girls, and everyone seems completely fine. all three laid their eggs this morning and nobody had any blood on them anywhere, and everyone was acting completely normal! i’m so confused and concerned? their feeder is one that we made out of a bucket and a container, it doesn’t have any sharp edges or anything. that was my main concern when i first made it, but they’ve been using it ever since i first moved them out into the coop without any issues. there’s no blood anywhere else other than that one spot on the feeder- i checked everywhere. it’s a decent amount of blood too! please help, or at least tell me something to check and look out for.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I agree that is a bit of blood there. Have you counted your flock? Everyone is there? No bloody poops anywhere? No black spots on their comb? Even a teensy little comb injury can bleed a lot, and it will scab over as a black spot.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Did you check toenails and where the comb meets the beak? I had a boy get caught there on something and his house looked like a blood bath. He was perfectly fine thougg

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Did you check toenails and where the comb meets the beak? I had a boy get caught there on something and his house looked like a blood bath. He was perfectly fine thougg

Oh yes, toenails bleed A LOT! I have a girl with bumblefoot who limps, and as a result her toenails get really long. I trimmed two and the third, whoops, snipped the quick. She lost probably two teaspoons of blood almost immediately. It was wild! I dipped the nail in some cornstarch and it instantly stopped the bleeding, poor gal. But yes, check the nails! It'll be difficult to tell once it's stopped bleeding unless the tear was obvious though.

 

[kelzey]

I agree that is a bit of blood there. Have you counted your flock? Everyone is there? No bloody poops anywhere? No black spots on their comb? Even a teensy little comb injury can bleed a lot, and it will scab over as a black spot.

i only have three so it’s very easy to account for everyone. no bloody poops! i checked their butts n everything for that also, and looked all over the floor, and no new spots on their combs. the blood wasn’t there last night or i would have seen it!

 

[kelzey]

Did you check toenails and where the comb meets the beak? I had a boy get caught there on something and his house looked like a blood bath. He was perfectly fine thougg

i didn’t think about checking nails- i’ll go do that right now

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I know about tonsils because (starting to think it's genetic because they're all related somehow) a lot of my birds are notorious for losing nails. I have a cockerel (less than 6 months) who already is down 2 and a 3rd is likely to go soon

 

[kelzey]

I know about tonsils because (starting to think it's genetic because they're all related somehow) a lot of my birds are notorious for losing nails. I have a cockerel (less than 6 months) who already is down 2 and a 3rd is likely to go soon

just checked all of their feet and they seem perfectly fine. i’m so confused!

 

[kelzey]

is it possible that the blood doesn’t belong to either of them? maybe someone caught like a mouse or something & like, you know? because i don’t see more blood or any sign of injury

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Thats very possible. I know from experience chicken prey tends to bleed a lot