Hen tried to kill flockmate

[skeeter9]

I must have a bad batch of Ameraucanas (actually I think they are EE). I got them as day olds 1 1/2 years ago. The roo turned out to be so mean that we had to get rid of him. Of the 2 hens, one of them lays very fragile eggs that have bits of eggshell inside the egg, and the other one attacked and almost killed one of her flockmates the other day. I think the Australorp that she tried to kill will be ok, but I don't get how one hen can be so brutal to another when they have been together since they were chicks.

Anyway, this Ameraucana/EE ripped the hide and flesh off of the back of the Australorp's head and neck clear to the bone. She had to have worked on her for quite a while to inflict that much damage. I flushed the wound, poured Betadine on it and treated it with Blukote, then tried to get her to take some amoxicillin, but she wouldn't even touch it. There's no way to hold her head still and force her to take some with a syringe because of her injuries, so I'm just trying to keep it as clean and disinfected as possible.

If anyone knows of anything else I should be doing, please let me know.

Thanks,
Lori

 

[Newchickenmom&kids]

Wow! So sorry...do you just have the two???

 

[hatty]

I had a wyandotte that was unjured by a raccoon and she took the ammoxycillin with out a problem after I gave it to her mixed in food a few times. keep it clean and she should do ok

 

[ole-crone]

I have a HUGE rooster who was attacked when he was about 6 weeks old by a couple of older RIRs. They poked out his eye. Months passed, One Eye grew up, calmly waiting for the day of his revenge. I was shocked when I opened the coops one day and found one of the RIRs brutally killed and the other one hiding in a nesting box. Every chance he got he tried to hurt her - constantly attacking. To any other chicken he is a sweetheart - especially his silkie foster mother with whom he raised a batch of chicks. But the attacks on 'Hennie" were so violent that we finally had to build him his own special 'coop' to keep him away. He is now older, a bit lame from being so large and no longer at the top of the chicken pyramid because of his missing eye, but Hennie still makes sure she stays on his blind side. He is no longer out to kill her but he is definately harder on her than the others. He does not like her one bit! I would have never thought that chickens carry a grudge but One Eye proves otherwise.

Could there be something in your chickens' past that brought on the attack?

 

[skeeter9]

I suppose it's possible, but I can't imagine what a sweet hen like Aurora could possibly have done. She is the least aggressive of all of my chickens. Of course, maybe she's just very good at hiding her nasty side?

That's quite a story - you wouldn't think that something with a brain the size of a pea could hold a grudge, but who knows!!!

Lori

 

[silkiechicken]

Chicken actually have a decent sided brain in that thin skull of theirs. About the size of half a walnut half... but without the wrinkles