Dark areas near comb

[Summerfield]

Hi all! We have 4 ladies who roam our suburban backyard (about .25 acre) and roost in a modest coop at night. One is an adopted RIR (Annie) who is quite aggressive. The other three are 20 week old ‘chicks’ who we’ve had together since they were 3 days old. Much calmer temperaments.

One of the chicks, our Buff Orp named Dumpling started getting some black spots near her growing comb. See attached pics. Is that normal or a sign of disease or pecking issues?

Annie always chases the other three away (she’s pretty mean), but rarely comes in contact with them as they are good about escaping. That said I can’t watch them all day. At night the chicks usually sleep on the roosting bar together while Annie sleeps on a bar inside the coop. Then I open the coop first thing in the morning (5:30am) so they can all have space from each other.

Probably good to mention our other two chicks are the exact same age but don’t have the black areas.

Any thoughts? Thank you!

 

[Itz_Kitkat]

Look like they are just scabs. some of our hens have scabs like that from our boss hen I could be wrong tho so wait for more replies

 

[Fluffy_Feathers]

Is it the coloring of the comb? Or scabs and/or dried blood? To me it just looks like some dried blood. She could've been pecked pretty hard or cut her comb on something that caused her comb to bleed. You can try washing it off with a damp rag or something to confirm if it is blood. If that is what it is then it's not something to worry about. It happens sometimes. Combs can bleed a lot from just a small cut.

 

[Mamatomany123]

It definitely could be from pecking. The coop is too small for 4 hens which may be why the pecking is occurring.

 

[Summerfield]

Look like they are just scabs. some of our hens have scabs like that from our boss hen I could be wrong tho so wait for more replies

Thank you for the advice! I think you were right

 

[Summerfield]

Is it the coloring of the comb? Or scabs and/or dried blood? To me it just looks like some dried blood. She could've been pecked pretty hard or cut her comb on something that caused her comb to bleed. You can try washing it off with a damp rag or something to confirm if it is blood. If that is what it is then it's not something to worry about. It happens sometimes. Combs can bleed a lot from just a small cut.

I think that’s what it was! Healed up in no time - thank you for the insight!

 

[Summerfield]

It definitely could be from pecking. The coop is too small for 4 hens which may be why the pecking is occurring.

That’s a good point - we’ll have to see what we can do about that. Fortunately it healed up quickly and hasn’t happened since.