Bloody Beak Problem, possible cause?

[Sunnysidedown]

Hi there,

I am new to this raising hens thing and so far it's been really cool to do. Our chicks (5 mixed) are 10-11 weeks old now and in their new coop/run happy as clams. No problems thus far until the last few days. 2 days ago the neighbors dog got loose and charged the run (it's too well built to worry about dogs). But the young hens got spooked and afterwards I noticed blood on the beak of one of the Buff OPs. It's as if in the short panic the hen injured itself by running into something and got a bloody nose? After a few hours the blood dried up and now looks almost normal. Now today, our cat charged at the run while chasing off a nearby crow again spooking the chicks and the other Buff Op got a bloody nose almost exactly the same in appearance as the first one. It too has "healed" over after a few hours.

These injuries were not due to "pecking order" as has been some answers in other related threads. I was wondering if BOs have high blood pressure which spikes during panic attacks to cause this? or perhaps that panicing young hens just run into things head first to cause this type of injury?
Thanks for your thoughts!

 

[sourland]

I would think that it is just coincidence that both hens got spooked, crashed into the pen and sustained minor injuries to their beaks. In such 'frightening situations' chickens can even break their necks by crashing into solid objects.

 

[dikbiscuit]

Welcome to the site. When I saw the title, I thought it was going to be a chipped/broken beak. Sorry to say I haven't got an answer for you. @sourland , would hate for that to happen. ;-; Luckily there's not much where I live that could spook them so bad.

 

[Sunnysidedown]

Thanks for your thoughts and welcome. There doesn't appear to be any permanent damage to either hen but I'm pretty sure that they just ran or flew head first into something to cause the bleeding. Hopefully it will just toughen them up for future collisions.