Injury on Polish hen’s head—how long to isolate?

[spaghettisorcerer]

Our Polish hen has an over-mating/pecking injury on her head. For reference, she is one of 4 hens in a flock with our bantam rooster, and is therefore one of his favorites (the other hens are a showgirl, leghorn and maran). The Polish always had a bald spot but the attached picture shows the pecking injury that has scabbed over. We are using Vetericyn and the blue ointment (not blu-kote, I can’t remember the exact name but I’ll edit this with the name. Edited: it’s called Hen Healer), and feather fixer food, and for a bit she was doing a lot better, had her perk back, her feathers were floofing back up, and the scab ended up coming off too early. Our other hens pecked at it and I immediately isolated her to a crate with her own bedding, food and water inside of the run with the flock.
We've known we needed to expand the flock for the hens’ sake when he started to over-mate and then we had to move, but are now settled and ready to introduce new pullets to the flock. We’re pretty sure it’s an over-mating issue, as she is easier to dominate than our other hens (minus the showgirl), but we’ve also seen some signs of bullying by the other hens. We hope that at least some of the issue gets resolved through getting more hens for our rooster as I fear isolating her will just make the 3 remaining hens anxious with our rooster and cooping her up has me SO sad. We would introduce her with the pullets, provided she’s also fully healed, if that’s what we should do.

So my main questions are:
-how long to isolate the hen if I cannot guarantee they won’t peck the wound (even if fully healed, just head in general)? Her being a polish scares me because I’ve read their crests are more vulnerable to injury, and their brain can be more in jeopardy due to the thin layer of skin they have.
-continue with vetericyn/blue ointment? Any other recs?
-do you all see this as an over-mating issue, and can this also cross over into bullying in the hen pecking order? What is the appropriate amount of hens to rooster ratio in your opinion? Again, for reference, our rooster is a booted bantam, and our 4 hens are a Polish, showgirl, leghorn and maran.
-should we get more Polish hens if so?

Please no hate though we are relatively new to keeping chickens, we love them and just want to do the best thing for them. We want to educate ourselves and yall are honestly better than Google.

So sorry for the sad head picture I hate it so much I feel so bad for her. She’s also CONSTANTLY in the rain and mud I can’t keep her out of it, that’s why her crest feathers are so dirtyand the blue is from the ointment lol.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

HI, sorry this has happened to your hen. I honestly have no answers for you, I know nothing about Polish, but I assure you, you will get no hate here. Let me tag some of our Educators and see if they can help you. @Eggcessive, @Wyorp Rock @azygous

 

[Eggcessive]

Get some BluKote spray and spray her head wound every 2-3 days as needed to cover the bare red skin. Separate her until you get it. Feathers will grow back eventually.

 

[SemiSweet2391]

This exact same thing happened with our Polish girl. She was the only one because the other Polish we got died, and as a result the other girls pecked out her crest (she looked EXACTLY like your picture; mine is a White Polish and the blue kote dyed her "hair" purple haha. She looked radical for a bit there).

I had her separated until her crest grew back, but unfortunately that wasn't enough to stop the pecking, as her appearance was just too different from the other girls. We had to permanently separate her and build a coop/run just for her. We just hatched some more Polish friends for her that will be joining her soon; hopefully their similar appearance and docile personality will mean she can have friends that don't bully her just because she's more beautiful than they are!

Definitely start with letting her feathers grow back, and when you reintroduce her, watch her crest very, very closely. I would check my girl's head every day to see if I could find missing feathers (sadly, I did).

Good luck!!!

 

[Eggcessive]

I had two polish hens, and they would take turns being the victim of head feather picking. When it occurred the head was sprayed with BluKote if discovered early. Once a young cockerel scalped one of them. She had to be separated for a few days and treated with Neosporin to her head. Then she was treated with the BluKote. This only happened occasionally, but in a mixed flock Polish can be picked on. Unfortunately the 2 hens were eventually killed by hawks during the day around 3-4 years old.

 

[sharrielee]

My polish hen is completly bald from plucking. When I found her her whold head was a giant swollen bubble from all the relentless pecking. I took her in and put neosporin on the wounds. She was not eating and barely drinking for days. She was very depressed and I am certain her head must have hurt terribly! She has some pin feathers now, I take her out to release with the others when they are out foraging, and bring her in at night. But that hasn't stopped the pecking, each time I bring her in she is missing a pin feather. But I had to let her be with them, she was so depressed. I am going to have to separate part of the run and see if I can put one of my bantems in with her for company. I don't know what else to do. I wish they had chicken helmuts with holes for feathers LOL.

 

[Eggcessive]

New feathers growing in are very enticing for others, and they see the bare red spots and start pecking. Place her with them in a wire dog crate (with food and water) with shade during the day. That way she can peck and forage, but not get pecked. You may need to try some pinless peepers if it continues once her feathers are all gown in. I had this happen every now and then with 2 polish pullets, later hens. They would pick on one, and she would be okay after being treated with BluKote spray, but you had to start it when feather picking first started. When they are all removed, they have to be separated. I do like to keep them within sight of the others to remain part of the flock, and to keep them happy.