injury found on hens side under wings

[boatyard chickens]

Hi, I 'm new to caring for chickens, I was given a flock of Welsummers and Ameracaunas from Whitmore Farms. What fun!!! The chickens are friendly but are not used to being handled alot. Over the last month, I have needed to pick up 4 different hens. I have found healing injuries on 2 of them sort of on their sides under their left wings. The first one was in December, long rip which I cleaned up, put neosporin on. This hen was being ostracized and picked on by a rooster, I rehomed her. Today a seemingly happy hen was staying in the nesting box all afternoon. I got her out off of her egg, and looked at her closely and found a small healing injury(a hole) in the same place( under her left wing.) Do you think this could be from the rooster mating? If so what could I do to reduce the chances of it happening again?FYI I have not handled my other 13 hens, so I really don't know about the others. These hens never gave any sign that they were injured in their behavior. Hens must be stoic! Thanks

 

[sourland]

I'm willing to bet that these injuries are being caused by the rooster's toenails or spurs. You can trim the toenails and blunt or remove the spurs. This is most common with very large, clumsy roosters, overly aggressive roosters, multiple roosters trying to breed a hen at the same time or inexperienced cockerels. If these injuries continue to occur, you might consider getting a different rooster. edited to add: If you have more than one rooster in the flock, I would recommend that you get rid of all but the most gentle one.

 

[boatyard chickens]

Thanks, our Ameracauna rooster is very clumsy. I just recently trimmed his toenails and removed his spurs. I am sure her injuries were before the pedicure.