Is this damage from being pecked or a disease?

[brielin024]

I just posted here last night because a seemingly healthy bird just curled up and died in the coop yesterday now I noticed this on one of my chickens! They don't fight and I've never seen anyone pecking

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

My first step would be to pick up this bird and give it a thorough check for external parasites (mites, lice, etc) -- are you familiar with how to do that and what to look for? I would also inspect the coop and roost tonight, after the birds have gone to roost and things are well settled. Using a nice, bright light and inspecting carefully can often reveal bugs and/or blood staining/crust on the wood surfaces.

 

[coach723]

Do you have a rooster? That looks like rooster damage from being topped.
If you don't have a roo, then I would be looking for mites.

 

[brielin024]

I have no idea! I'm new to this. I did treat the coop with diatomacious earth a couple times but not the last time I cleaned it a few days ago. I'm going to do that then for sure. Any advice on what to look for as far as bugs would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!

 

[brielin024]

Coach723,
I have several roosters (about half and half in my flock) and yes they bite the hens when mating if that's what topped means. They always seem to bite them on the head/neck area though and this is only on her wings. I've considered separating the roosters from the hens because I don't like the violent mating but other than that they all get along really well so I'm torn

 

[coach723]

This post has some good pic's to help look for and ID mites, if that is what you are dealing with. Mixing wood ash into their dust bathing area's is a big help, wood ash kills the mites. Just make sure it's only WOOD ash. DE can be hard on their respiritory systems, so be careful with that. I use it too, just be judicious with it.
It is very likely that it's the roosters though. I have a couple of hens that take a beating on their shoulders like this from the roo's. "Topping"
is just another term for 'mounting'. They cause this kind of damage with their nails while trying to hang on. You can also try keeping the roo's nails trimmed. Hen saddles work well for damage to their backs, but are somewhat less effecting on the shoulder area. Even the one's with 'wings' are limited in their protection of this area. I still use them, but they don't provide perfect protection. http://www.hensaver.com/ or you can make your own. A 50% ratio of roosters to hens is a lot of roosters! You may want to consider a higher hen to rooster ratio, more like 8-10 hens to one rooster, to lessen the amount of topping they are getting. And some hens are just more docile and submissive and become 'favorites' and tend to be the ones that get like this. Hope this helps.

 

[coach723]

Sorry, left out the mite site link..... http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/08/poultry-lice-and-mites-identification.html

 

[brielin024]

Thank you guys so much!
I watched closely today how the roosters grab onto the hens and they do grab with their claws right in that exact same area. So now I'm sure that's the problem and I took all the roosters out and put them in the shed , my poor hens! I also added DE to the coop and the sand that they dust bathe in just in case it's bugs but I didn't see anything. Gotta make a permanent spot for all my roos now : /