Hens Pecking the Feet Of Other Hens

[redmanplace]

We have two hens, and one is pecking the foot of the other every morning before we let them out of their chicken "condo." Every morning her foot is bleeding and open, but by the end of the day, with all of the cold weather we're having in St. Louis, the wound is scabbed over. But every morning, the wound is open before we let them out and is bleeding all over her foot. They both are about 8 months old and just started laying eggs about two months ago. Their names are "Chicken & Dumplins," and Dumplins started pecking on Chicken's waddle & comb, but has since stopped. Within the past 4 days, every morning before we let them out to roam for the day, Chicken has an open wound on her foot that bleeds all down her "fingers." We taped it up today, but not sure why this is happening, or how to treat it? She pecks at the bandage, so we're thinking about leaving the bandage off during the day so it can get air, and just bandage it at night so if Dumplins IS the one doing the pecking, Chicken's foot can be protected before we let them out of their coup at 7:30 a.m. Has anyone else experienced this? We put triple-antibiotic ointment on it one day, but it just seemed to make the scab soft and make it bleed more. Any ideas/suggestions are helpful.

 

[bcmama]

I'm following because I hope to get an answer for a similar problem that I posted concerning my BR picking on everyone else since they started laying. I don't have an answer so I'm sorry. I hope your two figure out their issues because I want mine to do the same.

Good luck.