hens with damaged wing roots

[skyva]

Hi, I have two hens and a rooster. I had more but mareks and some other random events thinned the flock.

I have just noticed this damage to the wings of the hens, on both. Please disregard the dark red near the right wing in the photo, it is not blood but beetroot and other fruit and vegetable pulp from my kitchen. There is no bleeding on either bird.

I suspect over-roostering. He is quite energetic. All birds are about 15 months old and in otherwise great health. Both hens are laying consistently through the Melbourne winter, and have a large hen house and fully enclosed run designed for 7+ birds. I let them free range the paddocks on weekends. They seem happy and energetic.



What should I do? If it is an overactive rooster I am reluctant to get more hens at present, and would more favour giving the rooster away.
If I get more hens, will younger ones integrate ok?

Thanks.

 

[themuttsknutts]

Hi, looks like the roo has literally humped the feathers off his girls. more girls would help spread his attention around a little

 

[themuttsknutts]

have you found the colour in beetroot gets into the yolks and makes them blood red?

How cold is a melbourne winter?

 

[skyva]

have you found the colour in beetroot gets into the yolks and makes them blood red?

How cold is a melbourne winter?

No, but I don't give them much and I am not sure if they even eat it.

Melbourne is not really cold, minimums around 3-5 Celsius at night, and 10-15 Celsius during the day, so 37-50F typically.

The rooster is aggressive, and has attacked me, the kids and my mum. He also wakes me and the kids up at 5am. As this is typical rooster behaviour I was going to ignore it if he didn't attack us anymore, but if even the hens are having a hard time then he has pretty much run out of luck. One day he decided to fly over the fence and attack the dog. He was lucky she has a soft mouth and responds when I asked her to drop, as otherwise he was dinner.

I am tempted to give him away and get a silky rooster and hen maybe two hens.

 

[themuttsknutts]

silky roo is a good choice. small, cute and no flying.

 

[skyva]

Ok, so I have gotten rid of the rooster around 8 weeks ago. The brown hen has not shown much sign of improvement, still with those bare patches, although there seems some growth of feathers, so not worse.

How quickly should this fix itself?

Anything I can do to assist, and could there be any other factors? The brown hen is dominant I believe so I doubt it is the other hen (there are only 2 large hens in the cage).