I have read the "cannibalism" thread which gave good ideas, but thought I might post since I am not sure the original cause here.
I'm the usual chicken tender, but my DH has been doing almost all our chicken care as I have had pretty bad morning sickness for the last two months. He's also taken over coop cleaning duty - both of which I'm very thankful for! With the weather warming, I was out today to help as well. Hopefully I'm also toward the end of the m.s. soon.
Anyway, we'd noticed our chickens were looking a little scruffy like a molt, but they are too young (I think) to actually be molting. They came last May as little bitties, so are still under a year old. The EEs look worse than our black sex links. We have attributed this to maybe being "end of winter" hardship but we weren't sure. Today I noticed one hen had a bad gash near her back, just behind where the wing ends (so not easily visible). It is bloody and raw. My husband and I caught her, inspected, put on antibacterial powder, and quickly set up our old brooder pen in the barn where she is now by herself. I should add she was fully mobile and evaded our catching attempts quite well for a while. Overall she seemed fine aside from this, and now appears to be resting in her pen in our barn.
We watched the others for a while, and ended up treating one other one who seemed to have a similar, but much less severe wound. I saw one hen peck at another, but nothing that seemed to be a concerted effort to hurt her.
We feed Blue Seal layer pellets @ 16 % protein, free choice oyster shell, and cabbages a few times a week. Also scratch and random small treats. We have 12 hens and 1 rooster, and during the winter, the run was mostly shoveled out by DH so they could get around. Of course there have been a lot of days where it snowed and none of them went out at all. Winter seems to be ending here so now everything is soggy as the snow melts off.
My husband would like to redesign the roost and make it more spacious, but in general I don't think this the main issue.
Do you think
-they are not getting enough protein and that's caused pecking?
-they are bored?
-molting or feather picking (maybe again due to protein issue)?
-roost issues?
Last summer/fall, we did let them out for 1-2 hrs frequently for supervised bug hunting and grass and fun, but that stopped once we had snow cover (still at about 80%+ snow cover). That will resume once the grass is growing and/or there are bugs again.
last, any suggestions to help us care for the injured chicken are helpful. I'm not sure how long to keep her separated but clearly she should not be in with the others now. we'll be watching the other one to see if she is getting bothered.
I doubt this was a pred but that is not out of the realm of possibility. The run appears fully secure, but we lost the top in the ice storm (we'll redo once we can get around enough to work).
Thanks for thoughts and suggestions.
I'm the usual chicken tender, but my DH has been doing almost all our chicken care as I have had pretty bad morning sickness for the last two months. He's also taken over coop cleaning duty - both of which I'm very thankful for! With the weather warming, I was out today to help as well. Hopefully I'm also toward the end of the m.s. soon.
Anyway, we'd noticed our chickens were looking a little scruffy like a molt, but they are too young (I think) to actually be molting. They came last May as little bitties, so are still under a year old. The EEs look worse than our black sex links. We have attributed this to maybe being "end of winter" hardship but we weren't sure. Today I noticed one hen had a bad gash near her back, just behind where the wing ends (so not easily visible). It is bloody and raw. My husband and I caught her, inspected, put on antibacterial powder, and quickly set up our old brooder pen in the barn where she is now by herself. I should add she was fully mobile and evaded our catching attempts quite well for a while. Overall she seemed fine aside from this, and now appears to be resting in her pen in our barn.
We watched the others for a while, and ended up treating one other one who seemed to have a similar, but much less severe wound. I saw one hen peck at another, but nothing that seemed to be a concerted effort to hurt her.
We feed Blue Seal layer pellets @ 16 % protein, free choice oyster shell, and cabbages a few times a week. Also scratch and random small treats. We have 12 hens and 1 rooster, and during the winter, the run was mostly shoveled out by DH so they could get around. Of course there have been a lot of days where it snowed and none of them went out at all. Winter seems to be ending here so now everything is soggy as the snow melts off.
My husband would like to redesign the roost and make it more spacious, but in general I don't think this the main issue.
Do you think
-they are not getting enough protein and that's caused pecking?
-they are bored?
-molting or feather picking (maybe again due to protein issue)?
-roost issues?
Last summer/fall, we did let them out for 1-2 hrs frequently for supervised bug hunting and grass and fun, but that stopped once we had snow cover (still at about 80%+ snow cover). That will resume once the grass is growing and/or there are bugs again.
last, any suggestions to help us care for the injured chicken are helpful. I'm not sure how long to keep her separated but clearly she should not be in with the others now. we'll be watching the other one to see if she is getting bothered.
I doubt this was a pred but that is not out of the realm of possibility. The run appears fully secure, but we lost the top in the ice storm (we'll redo once we can get around enough to work).
Thanks for thoughts and suggestions.
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