Head injury and the bullies are making it worse!

Bitter Farm

In the Brooder
6 Years
Feb 25, 2013
13
0
22
I added 4 new hens to my flock (now 12 hens) about 6 weeks ago, one of which is a white leghorn (the only white). She very obviously is the "low man" but it hasn't been a huge deal. However, I think she must have gotten pecked extra hard the other day right where her comb connects to the back of her head. By the time I found it there was about a 1 inch "incision" across the back of her head. I tried to clean it out and keep her separate, but this morning it almost looks like the entire back of her head is laid open. (They are such meanies at night) I have a couple of RIR's that are bullies and they keep pecking at her bright red head. I don't have a second coop, and I can't keep her indoors, any other ideas how to keep her head covered and clean? My yard is almost .25 acres so I let them all roam and she's good at avoidance, but I'd really like to put a hat or something on her so they leave her alone and she can heal. What is the best way to cover a head injury?
 
I have a dog cage that I use to keep my sick ones separate. Can you isolate her that way? I recently had one that got an injury, I cleaned her up and all seemed fine. Took her to join. I went in for a while came out and the literally pecked her to death. Meanies! So now I have a sick chicken in a cage in my heated garage. Well....she just took a warm bath so she is now wrapped up in a towel on my lap..ha
 
You really need some place where you can keep a sick or injured bird or where you can put a bully bird for an extended time out. You can put some Blu Kote on the leghorn's wound to help hide it but any injured bird really needs to be kept separate until she heals up some otherwise they'll just keep at her. Unfortunately this may also lead to more problems when you put her back with the flock. If you know what bird or birds are instigating this behavior it's always good to pull them out and keep them separate for a while, like a few days, and see if things settle down.

Integrating new birds can be really difficult if they didn't have enough time to get to know each other through a fence, in separate pens, first. Especially when they go to roost at night, the existing birds really hate having new birds in their territory and in their coop at night. Make sure they have lots of roosts and room to get away from each other. I know my RIR's were the worst when it came to aggression. Since they've passed on my flock is definitely more peaceful.
 
Where she is already so picked on I'm worried about totally separating her. Would a coop-within-a-coop work or make things worse? That way she is mostly separated (bars between them) but still in the same immediate area.
 

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