my hen has an open sore under her wing

[herbsherbsflowers]

What can I put on it to help heal up. No one else is pecking at it because the wing covers it up but she pecks at it.

 

[threehorses]

First, determine why she has it. Check her a few times this week carefully for mites at night. They only get on them at night and can lay their droppings there, causing irritation and for a bird to pick.

Because they only get on at night, you won't necessarily see them as they can stay off the bird for several days (laying eggs in the wood in the coop).

Treat the sore by cleaning it and then putting simple neosporin ointment on it. don't use the kind that has the -caine pain killers or cortisone. Simple triple antibiotic.

 

[RAREROO]

It is most likely caused by the rooster cutting her open with his toenails while mating. I have had this happen before. A word of advise, don't pour peroxide in the wound, it could kill her, I found this out by experience. I usually use peroxide on a swab and vasiline,stitch her up, and keep her away from the roo until she heals.

Hope this helps

 

[threehorses]

Oh good point about the roo. Might be time to check his spurs, too, and groom them.

 

[herbsherbsflowers]

How do I groom the spurs? I'm pretty sure that is what caused this. He went after my husband the other day because he hates the bag with the oyster shell in it. He put three holes in DH's pants and leg. Sometimes I wonder if it is really worth it to have the rooster. I thought I wanted to raise chicks but the hens are not offering to go broody and we do not have an incubator or know much about doing that. We wanted the hen to raise the chicks the next time.

 

[Judy]

There are several ways to remove spurs. It might look bad, but really the roo seems to barely notice. It will bleed a little. You can use corn starch or flour to help stop it, or better yet, a product from the feed store called something like Quick Stop.

Here is a thread with video about spur removal:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=217482

A quick search will turn up many others.

As for a hen setting eggs and raising chicks, broodiness has been bred out of many chickens, or almost so. Henderson's says your breed "can be broody," so you would probably be lucky to get a broody out of 5 hens. If they are over a year and none have gone broody, they probably won't.

There are breeds that always or almost always go broody. You could get one hen and let her set the eggs from your Hollands; they won't care whose eggs they set or whose chicks they raise. I agree, I want my chickens hatching their own eggs and raising their own chicks.

Here is more info on broody breeds:

http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Broody-Hens-1.html

If I'm telling you things you already know, just ignore me.


There is also a method used to encourage one to go broody. Don't have any experience with this. You could try it:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=176282

When a roo attacks, you must attack back, or at least make him think you are, to tell him you are the dominant roo. Some can be corrected, some not. So here is an article about that:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2588-Roo_behavior

 

[herbsherbsflowers]

Thanks for all the info. Some of it I knew and some I did not. The rooster has only attacked that one time. It seems to be about the bag of oyster shell. My husband was giving them some and took the bag into the run. The rooster went wacko and spurred him. DH slapped him back pretty hard. Several days later when we had let them out into the yard for their evening walkabout, I forgot about what had happened and just picked up the bag to put it away and the rooster started squawking and my husband yelled at me to put it down, several times, forcefully. Fortunately, I did before anything happened. As soon as I put it down the rooster was ok. Chickens are weird creatures.

 

[Judy]

Quote:
Very! I'm sure you've now put the oyster shell into a different container. I'd love to know if this stops the attacks.

 

[threehorses]

I had a rooster like that- my first one, and oddly none of his progeny were as mean. Only he aimed at me, not the oyster shell bags.

I had a 2x4 out in the coop area that I wrote "rooster repellent" on. And And no, I didn't hit him (before anyone gets upset). Though I admit one time he was hauling chicken-butt towards my leg, he happened to be on a water hose, and I reached down and pulled that hose up to mess up his footing. He did a perfect flip in the air, landed on his feet, and had this look like "What the...???" and ran off.

But there were times I had to pick up that board and press it against my leg facing him as I walked out to the pasture! He didn't try to hit it thankfully. Just having it there was warning enough.

Maybe he could read.