International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[marchick]

Its normal and natural behavior.. it is their natural pecking order. Thor, the main rooster is no longer around to keep everyone in check so the males begin competing for that dominant position. A hierarchy exists in all animals and as long as no serious injuries are occuring, you can let them work it out amongst themselves.

Yes, I figured it was normal. I hope it gets better but Loki was bleeding pretty good. I put him out in the yard for most of the day. I am afraid niebors dogs might get him though.

 

[pioneerchick816]

I’m so sad about my BCM Roo!! His perfect comb was hit hard with our arctic blast over a week ago. I don’t know enough about the anatomy, but it looks even worse now than a couple days ago. Will it just scab over & then grow back new flesh or will this permenatley ruin his comb? I mean is he going to be combless lol? Newb here obviously :/ I’m keeping an eye on to make sure it doesn’t get pecked at or infected. He’s my only Roo :/

 

[chickengr]

I have just lost my pullet. might have been IB. as she was one of the healthiest looking chickens I am now worried about the rest.

 

[kfelton0002]

View attachment 1232913 I’m so sad about my BCM Roo!! His perfect comb was hit hard with our arctic blast over a week ago. I don’t know enough about the anatomy, but it looks even worse now than a couple days ago. Will it just scab over & then grow back new flesh or will this permenatley ruin his comb? I mean is he going to be combless lol? Newb here obviously :/ I’m keeping an eye on to make sure it doesn’t get pecked at or infected. He’s my only Roo :/

The posterior lobe and most of the points still look fairly pink so there may be a very small possibility the black frostbitten tissue is just superficial and may flake off. It is more realistic to tell you to expect that the comb will become necrotic (dead tissue) everywhere beyond the black border and eventually fall off. If at any time the tissue of the comb begins to slough or look infected, get a pair of sharp scissors and simply cut away the dead parts of the comb as the necrotic tissue will become gangrene. I have seen frostbitten combs too many times to count and never have we lost a rooster to an infected frostbitten comb. But I will tell you that it can make them very sick as the gangrene can cause septicemia in the bird which is an infection in the blood stream and can kill the bird. I will reiterate that we have never lost a bird to a frostbitten comb because we don't let the frost bite get to the point where it will threaten the bird's health. Once we notice the frost bite, we dub the birds. Dubbing is not a practice reserved for only Game chickens, it is a practice that can and does make roosters of any breed more comfortable in the winter as frostbite is painful. I watch roosters with frostbitten combs and wattles and they stoically won't show it much, but it hurts. They will shake their heads, and rub sore frostbitten wattles back and forth against their breast because of pain. We take a good sharp pair of sewing scissors and trim off the comb, wattles, and in the case of our Game birds the ear lobes as well. The birds heal beautifully and never miss a beat. They resume eating and drinking right after dubbing and do great. I'm sorry your fella got frost bite. My Marans and Legbar boys were gotten frost bitten too, but luckily the Marans are not as bad as the Legbars were (with the exception of Griffin). We dubbed the two Legbar cock birds and they are healing up very well.

 

[kfelton0002]

Worst case scenario his comb will dry up and eventually fall off and he will be left with only the healthy base portion of the comb. I drew a yellow line where the frost bitten portion begins. Everything below that yellow line is still healthy tissue and will remain.

 

[Red Banks]

I have just lost my pullet. might have been IB. as she was one of the healthiest looking chickens I am now worried about the rest.

So sorry..... raising chickens can be very heartbreaking.

 

[kfelton0002]

I have just lost my pullet. might have been IB. as she was one of the healthiest looking chickens I am now worried about the rest.

Sorry to hear that. Is there any way you could send her for a necropsy to see what was wrong with her?

 

[pioneerchick816]

@kfelton0002 Will it bleed a lot when I cut it back? Do you use anything to deaden it before you do? I’ll be watching it very closely. We are getting more extremely cold weather for our area today.
Thank you for filling me in about the frost bite. I’m hoping it will work itself out on its own, but I will take it off if I need to

 

[kcrandall]

I have just lost my pullet. might have been IB. as she was one of the healthiest looking chickens I am now worried about the rest.

So sorry for your loss @chickengr!

 

[chickengr]

Sorry to hear that. Is there any way you could send her for a necropsy to see what was wrong with her?

looks like it might be IB. if there was a medicine for that I would try a necropsy. but just to know what it was and no help for other chickens makes no sense to me. IB is very common in greece.

she died fighting for breath as all the other IB infected birds did. that's why I think the vet was right when suspected IB. I found a few soft shelled eggs from a few other birds too. and in my short experience with chickens I have learned that only weak chickens get parasites. the healthy ones cope with parasites well.