Blood on my egg?

[NoFarmGirl]

Hello all,

Why is there blood on my leg horns egg? It looks as if she had a difficult time laying it....?

This particular hen has progressively lost more feathers since we got her last Nov. Typically she lays eggs on the floor and they get broken and eaten. She is definitely the low bird in the flock.

This morning when I went to the coup she had her head crammed under the ramp and a fair bit of fresh blood on her bottom. I think the other birds were pecking at her behind!

I have learned on this site that chickens use the protein in their bodies to lay eggs and to grow feathers. They can't do both at once. Why does this chicken continue to lay eggs, and not grow feathers back?

Also, what is 'blue Kote' used from?

 

[DanEP]

Blue kote is used to cover open wounds on chickens. chickens tend to pick on red as in blood making things worse, blue kote covers this up.If she is getting picked on that bad I would try and see who is the worst one and remove her from the flock for a few days to see if that helps. Quite often it's just 1 or 2 girls doing it and removing them will reset the pecking order and things settle down. If it does then wait about a week and reintroduce the bully's one at a time so that they have to spend time working back into the pecking order and may forget about picking on your leghorn. Oh and leave the worst bully till last, the bigger the flock she has to integrate back into the better. If things don't settle down after that some body may have to go. It's just my way of handling my flock but I won't keep mean roo's or hens I want a nice peaceful flock. But that is for you to decide with your flock.
If your leghorn is is not bleeding leave her in the flock but if she's bleeding quite a bit you may want to pull her for a day or two to heal but the shorter the better so she doesn't loose her place in the pecking order
Missing feathers may not be regrown till the next molt as long as their otherwise healthy it's really no big deal. Also a little blood on an egg happens and nothing to worry about as long as it doesn't continue.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Some chickens will bleed a bit passing eggs, it stretches them out a bit too much, the egg is probably being eaten because it's on the floor, and her being bullied like that will end with her pecked to death. It sounds like you are having trouble with either diet or housing, crowded chickens will peck, chickens without enough protein will peck and eat eggs, perhaps if you share some of what you are doing we can help you get your flock back to happy chickens.

Blue kote is a wound dressing, it also helps to hide the color of the blood so chickens aren't drawn to wounds, they are attracted to red, that's why some feeders and waterers are red.

 

[NoFarmGirl]

We have an 8x10 coup with daily access to a 9 x 10 wren, which also opens onto a one day to be, 25 x 25 foot garden. They have access to the garden every morning. We feed them 'layer feed' mixed with oyster shells. Every morning the flock get a couple of scoops of corn scratch, and quite often I will give them veggie ends, heels of bread etc.

I'm not certain who the bully or bullies could be. We have 5 big leg horns, 1 chanticleer, 1 Maline, 1 Americana, and 2 light Sussex. Our rooster is a light Sussex as well. My guess on the bully would be the Maline. She's a bigger girl and tends to be pushy for food.

Hannah, the big leg horn experiencing difficulties, has always been a tiny girl, seems she tends to keep to herself, and to me has always seemed a wee be 'touched'. In the early early spring, I found her nestled on the floor beside the rooster when I would go in the shut the wren door at night. She's the only bird who can pretty much spin her head all the way around!! Is it possible that she is just a weak sickly bird to begin with?

Wouldn't it be simplest just to blue Kote the bird?

Can stress cause disruption amongst the flock? How long will chickens be 'stressed' for? My husband will sometimes let visiting children chase the chickens. (I know, assshole move!). The girls were getting along fine it seemed up until this.

I should also mention, about a week ago I noticed the rooster had some feathers missing on his neck with some blood as well. He continued to lose more feathers, but the blood is no longer there. Can there be some blood due to feather loss while moulting or was he being pecked at too?

 

[NoFarmGirl]

Just to clarify......the girls were getting along fine up until today when I found her with her head under the ramp.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

It does sound like there is something off about your hen, I know sometimes chickens will target a bird that is unwell or sick, or just acting weird, some of mine will get a little honky cough going and get attacked every time they do it, I think they are trying to drive it off. I have had some birds that weren't right, sometimes I would cull other times I would separate and tend to that one separately, but that turns into a whole project.

I would certainly use bluekote and hope it was just one of those things, you sound like you have a decent set up as well as a rooster who should help with hen fighting. He may be going through a neck molt, not sure why they will only molt on the neck, but this is normal. I have seen my hens peck at the roosters sometimes so maybe that's where his blood came from or maybe he was involved in the pecking in some way and got blood from the other hens on him.

Molting is a seasonal thing, so any feathers worn off by the rooster or pulled out won't grow back until a proper molt.

If anything were to be done, I think I would cull the one being bullied, as there is always a reason why they are doing it, and it doesn't sound like it's something caused by their environment.

As far as children chasing your chickens, that's just mean, it will cause stress but I think it would be expressed by lower egg production. I know about husbands.

 

[NoFarmGirl]

Thank you for your help. I will see how she's doing in the morning. There didn't appear to be any further pecking going on as the day progressed.