Chicken pecked at and bleeding-help

[walkerkm]

Woke up late this am-6:40 am instead of 6 am (time i'm usually opening the chicken door to let them out) and found that one of my hens was bleeding on top near her tail feathers. Is this because they were cooped up later than usual and were board?

The sun was up earlier today than normal...i have a light come on at 5am each morning to keep production going. i'm thinking it's time to shut the light off, or adjust it to come on later-maybe 6am.

Starting to think that by them being awake and having an hour or more in the closed coop in this case (and the sun is up earlier now), that they are getting board and picking on this girl.

any advice? Can i keep her wound sprayed and covered and leave her with my other 8 girls?

ps-i sprayed the area where she was bleeing with blu-kote and put a gauze pad on it and taped it to her with duct tape-is this correct? never ran into this before with my girls

thanks!
Kelly

 

[dawg53]

i think you ought to consider leaving the light off.you'll get plenty of eggs during the day. your hen is probably at the bottom of the pecking order,this why she's getting picked on.sometimes overcrowding can also cause this.is your chicken house big enough? as far as treatment is concerned,blu kote is great. i'd seperate her until the wounds heal.the others will see the gauze and peck at it more.i've never heard of duct tape used to cover gauze.depending on the size of the wounds,i've used vet wrap or regular non stick bandaids.