Injured pullet needs help

[AnneLovesChickens]

For the first time one of my babies has been injured by another chicken. Which one hurt her is still in question, but they left a nice hole in her head. Just took a layer of skin and feathers off. Blood was dry by the time I saw it. She seems okay. I cleaned the area and put blue hen healer goo on it. I go to put her back and the others are of course immediately pecking at her Blue head. What should I do? She’s an olive egger, named Olive, about 2 months old.

 

[Eggcessive]

How old are the other chickens and is there a breed or size difference? Separate her in a dog crate with food and water, and I would bring her inside for a day or two to observe. Clean and apply either plain neosporin or the hen heeled twice a day.

 

[Lizzy733]

Any chance you could zone off a section of the run for her so she is with the others, but they cannot get at her till the injury isn't so fresh? Do they have plenty of space and spare waterers\feeders or places she can get away from the others out of sight?

 

[AnneLovesChickens]

Any chance you could zone off a section of the run for her so she is with the others, but they cannot get at her till the injury isn't so fresh? Do they have plenty of space and spare waterers\feeders or places she can get away from the others out of sight?

This is the coop. They have 20 acres to run around on, but it’s winter and very cold here so they don’t wanna be outside. They do have plenty of water and food, even hidden bowls stashed around the coop in case one is being bullied, But do you think my coop is big enough?

 

[AnneLovesChickens]

How old are the other chickens and is there a breed or size difference? Separate her in a dog crate with food and water, and I would bring her inside for a day or two to observe. Clean and apply either plain neosporin or the hen heeled twice a day.

Okay, we’re gonna do that. My chicken are 2-5 months old, all grown up together. The youngest batch (which Olive is in) was just put in the crew about 2 weeks ago now, seemed zero issue. I just posted the picture of the coop to another person:

 

[Lizzy733]

What are the exact measurements of the coop and to how many birds? At a glance it seems fine and there appears to be enough going on to keep them busy, but if they are going to be cooped up in it for long stints in unfavorable weather, they might need more to keep them busy.
How exactly did you go about integrating the new-comers? Were they simply added, or did you follow a see but don't touch rule? With my established flock where space wasn't an issue, I had mixed results with adding new birds (hatched into the flock with see but don't touch till 2 weeks old) and found out one of my hens is prone to bullying. I've not had it result in injury, but she does go out of her way to make life tough on newbies.
You may need to do a bit of observation work to find out if there is a bird or two that are the culprits. With her being injured and chickens being curious things, she's likely to be attracting everyone's attention at the moment so it may not be the best time to figure out whodunit unless they start harassing someone else in her absence.
With mine, the harassee generally gives my pushy hen a wide berth - usually around a meter - and has plenty of room to move away from her without getting cornered. I've also been very strict with her to curb any 'antisocial' behavior, since we don't have a roo to break up the fighting. She now knows the sort of behavior I expect and stays in line.

 

[Eggcessive]

There are a lot of much bigger birds, plus ducks in your coop. How many square feet of room is there inside the coop and run, and how many birds? Are any of the ducks drakes? Is the rooster trying to mate the little ones? It looks like you have a lot of diversional objects to keep them busy, but most grown chickens require at least 4 square feet of room inside the coop, and much more for the run. Part of her problem could be the size difference or the ducks picking on her. I would get her healed and then go from there on figuring out whether to separate different sizes with a divider, or if getting the ducks into a separate coop might help. Most of these injuries heal if the brain is okay, but it can be difficult to keep them part of the flock and protected at the same time.

 

[AnneLovesChickens]

What are the exact measurements of the coop and to how many birds? At a glance it seems fine and there appears to be enough going on to keep them busy, but if they are going to be cooped up in it for long stints in unfavorable weather, they might need more to keep them busy.
How exactly did you go about integrating the new-comers? Were they simply added, or did you follow a see but don't touch rule? With my established flock where space wasn't an issue, I had mixed results with adding new birds (hatched into the flock with see but don't touch till 2 weeks old) and found out one of my hens is prone to bullying. I've not had it result in injury, but she does go out of her way to make life tough on newbies.
You may need to do a bit of observation work to find out if there is a bird or two that are the culprits. With her being injured and chickens being curious things, she's likely to be attracting everyone's attention at the moment so it may not be the best time to figure out whodunit unless they start harassing someone else in her absence.
With mine, the harassee generally gives my pushy hen a wide berth - usually around a meter - and has plenty of room to move away from her without getting cornered. I've also been very strict with her to curb any 'antisocial' behavior, since we don't have a roo to break up the fighting. She now knows the sort of behavior I expect and stays in line.

8x10 shed, 16 total poultry. They have mirrors, pecking toys, bells, shredded paper balls, roosting sticks, treat blocks to peck at, a sand box, what else is there? If another toy helps I’ll do it! She & her 6 siblings grew up in a kiddie pool in the basement, while the oldest batch of 5 birds 4-5 months lived in a pen attached to them, and they could see each other, but they weren’t able to touch each other. One day they started jumping out of their pen to hangout with the adults, so I let them, and I monitored them very closely for a week. And then we finished building their coop last weekend and they all moved into this coop together. So far they all seem happy. They’re not trying to dash for the door ever. And they’re always doing something and not crying. 2 of the older 5 are boys though. They both hit puberty a couple months ago. They get into crowing battles and puff their necks up dancing in a circle with each other but they don’t physically fight in a terrorizing way. And the tiny black rosecomb bantam always wins the battles against the large Rhode island red. Red won’t stop humping, but black can’t help but the dominant the world. The 3 girls give a quick peck at the younger baby ones in passing, but don’t latch violently. The 4 ducks are completely chill and only sometimes stand up against Red when he’s them nonstop. But Red and Black are always nice to the young ones and share the food and with them. Black only humps with persmission, but Red humps everything... except the babies. Red grabs onto necks when he does it, so part of me wonders if it was him, but he just never tries to mate with the younger ones. They’re definitely babies to them. And Black will grab someone by the neck once a month to say “I am the king” but I’ve never seen him last more than a second, and never draws blood. I don’t know.

 

[Eggcessive]

I would remove the cockerels from the coop, or separate the younger pullets until they are bigger.

 

[Lizzy733]

I would think if it was him, it would be more of a plucking than a pecking. Those measurements are in feet? The 4sqf recommendation is generally a minimum number and bigger birds need a bit of extra room, just as smaller birds can suit with a little less. More space never hurts; they will gratefully use whatever you provide them.
I'm assuming the bigger girls are getting pretty close to lay, right? They can go a bit crazy and get temperamental around that time - I find there can be a lot of OCD-like behavior, but they do tend to mellow out after that first month or so.
I think you'll really need to sit down with them and do some observation work to see what's really going on. If you can isolate her in line of sight till she's healed, do so or at least bring her out to mingle with the other girls regularly so she stays familiar to them. I've heard that around a week is the longest you can push it without having to reintegrate, but I've never pushed it.