help.. hen pecking

[jenaelizabeth]

Hi there.. this is along one sorry.

My name is jenna, my partner and i are new chicken owners and have 2x isa brown pullets and 2x black australorp pullets. We have had them for about 2-3months.. everything started out fine but after about 1month one of the australorps became unwell. We noticed one morning she had lost feathers around her neck and had some blood spots , then as the day progressed she seemed to get disoriented and wobbly on her feet. We seperated her for the night at after close inspection the following morning we notice she had lice... so started treating her with pestene and put some triple c in her water (we also used pestene on the other 3 chickens aswell and bedding)
Its beens about 3weeks now and she has continued to loose feathers and now has almost a completely bald neck going down to her back. She is up and about again and acting healthy scratching and eating/drinking and there is no sign of any lice so we let her back with the others for one night and freerange with them but during the day we have seen the other australorp peck at her neck and there are now some small blood spots.
My question is.. should we seperate the chicken with no feathers on her neck or seperate the chicken that has pecked her??
Shes has been getting very anxious to get back with the other hens but i dont want her to get injured again..

Any suggestions would be great.
Thankyou!

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi Jenna,

For now, I'd suggest isolating your injured bird. Chickens go into a pecking frenzy at the sight of blood. Her re-integration will be smoother if you can still keep her within the main coop. If, once she is fine and back with the flock the pecking continues, then a couple of weeks "time out" for the aggressor (and away from the main coop) will hopefully dissuade a reoccurrence.

All the best
CT