I wish I could post a pic, it would help alot, but my camera is broken. Yesterday I noticed a ring of what looks like blood on the feeder. I have a circular metal feeder that looks like a bucket in a slightly larger around tray and it hangs about six inches off the ground. The ring of "blood" (it's reddish brown and dried) is exactly where their combs and heads rub when they eat from the tray. I checked them all for cuts or abrasions but I couldn't find anything. Has anyone out there encountered this? Could they be pecking and or biting each others combs? If so, I couldn't find any scabs that would indicate recent wounds. I'm perplexed.
I made the same discovery the other day. No bloody wounds on any of the chickens. When I looked closer, I found that one of the pullets did have a small cut at the top (front) of her comb; probably from a rooster's mating attempt. When she ate at the feeder, apparently it rubbed the feeder and caused it to bled a bit. Everyone's fine, so I'm not too worried.
Even a tiny little pinprick on a comb seems to bleed a lot. Actually it LOOKS like a lot of blood, but a small amount really goes a long ways, like all over everything. When I was catching my BO roos to give to their new owner, one got a wire stick on his comb and flung blood all over the place. Extremely minor injury but looked like he was bleeding to death. The guy picking up the roos thought I had been hurt!
