Overmating injury on wing

[leighks]

My 9 month old Barred rock has some injuries from being the rooster’s favorite mate. She doesn’t have any feathers under her wings, and now part of her wing on the top is completely bare down to skin, near her back- I think it would technically be her elbow. This is the area I’m concerned about. I don’t think a hen saddle will help since they don’t cover the wing area. The skin isn’t broken yet, but it’s probably just a matter of time. I filed my rooster’s spurs and nails yesterday since I’m not sure what else to do.
Are there any products I can put on her exposed skin to protect it from further injury? I have used blue coat, but I’m wondering if there is some sort of skin protectant? Due to the area I can’t wrap it or cover it. I’m not looking to get rid of anyone, and I have no place for separating them so if anyone has other suggestions I would appreciate it!

 

[AllenK RGV]

Feel free to research Rooster of Gamefowl "Tie outs". I have one for each of my roosters and I will not tolerate them harassing my hens. I want my girls to eat and grow normally(just a me thing). Overmating to the point of injury is just something that I will find unacceptable.

 

[AllenK RGV]

My 9 month old Barred rock has some injuries from being the rooster’s favorite mate. She doesn’t have any feathers under her wings, and now part of her wing on the top is completely bare down to skin, near her back- I think it would technically be her elbow. This is the area I’m concerned about. I don’t think a hen saddle will help since they don’t cover the wing area. The skin isn’t broken yet, but it’s probably just a matter of time. I filed my rooster’s spurs and nails yesterday since I’m not sure what else to do.
Are there any products I can put on her exposed skin to protect it from further injury? I have used blue coat, but I’m wondering if there is some sort of skin protectant? Due to the area I can’t wrap it or cover it. I’m not looking to get rid of anyone, and I have no place for separating them so if anyone has other suggestions I would appreciate it!

Here is a rooster being tied-out, I just took this one today as he was being a jerk!

 

[AllenK RGV]

I just want to say what a wonderful design this made in the USA tie out is. The rooster kept charging it and tried to break loose. This design is made entirely from rubber and was elastic enough to minimize the shock to his bones. Most of the internet ones I have seen are just made of nylon rope so will not absorb and shock your bird might give it. I rate this product a 5/5 stars for it's deveopers of thinking through issues I had not.

 

[HeyHey]

where did you get the rooster tie out?
Can you give us a link.

I just want to say what a wonderful design this made in the USA tie out is. The rooster kept charging it and tried to break loose. This design is made entirely from rubber and was elastic enough to minimize the shock to his bones. Most of the internet ones I have seen are just made of nylon rope so will not absorb and shock your bird might give it. I rate this product a 5/5 stars for it's deveopers of thinking through issues I had not.

 

[AllenK RGV]

I bought them at my local feed store in San Benito, Tx. I'll go outside and see if I can find a manufactureres tag right now since you asked.

Edit- I just looked at the other two I have and they have no idedntifiying marks other than "made since 1887" om them. Not a single PLU code or anything else.

 

[HeyHey]

ok thanks for looking

 

[Wyorp Rock]

My 9 month old Barred rock has some injuries from being the rooster’s favorite mate. She doesn’t have any feathers under her wings, and now part of her wing on the top is completely bare down to skin, near her back- I think it would technically be her elbow. This is the area I’m concerned about. I don’t think a hen saddle will help since they don’t cover the wing area. The skin isn’t broken yet, but it’s probably just a matter of time. I filed my rooster’s spurs and nails yesterday since I’m not sure what else to do.
Are there any products I can put on her exposed skin to protect it from further injury? I have used blue coat, but I’m wondering if there is some sort of skin protectant? Due to the area I can’t wrap it or cover it. I’m not looking to get rid of anyone, and I have no place for separating them so if anyone has other suggestions I would appreciate it!

Do you have any photos?

I am also thinking that your boy is 9months as well? Cockerels are filled with hormones, so you can expect more of where that came from, especially when the weather warms and spring arrives.

You have a few options:

• find a saddle with wing protectors - this may help cushion the mating, but feathers may not still grow back in
  
• separate the Cockerel - house him separately until he matures or when you need him for breeding
  
• separate the pullet

You don't mention how many pullets you have, but even adding more may not fix the overmating - if she is a favorite this will continue.

Since she is missing feathers under the wings and on the shoulders, I would suspect that most are broken or rubbed off leaving the feather shaft intact. She will not develop new feathers until she goes through an adult molt (most likely this fall).

Blue Kote can help with healing the skin and hide any redness.

Evaluate your space, how many girls you have and think about keeping him penned/separated until he grows up - depending on the breed that can be a year or more before they can really control themselves a bit better.

 

[leighks]

Thanks for the responses. I will take and post pic when I get home from work.

Something that could have been a big factor was this primarily occurred over the last 3 weeks, when we had that awful cold spell with negative temps and a ton of snow-no one wanted to leave the coop for weeks! The overmating will probably still happen, but perhaps at a lesser rate, once they get back outside.

Yes the cockerel is also 9 months old, and full of hormones. He’s a mixed breed, so not sure when he will be mature or start to slow down with the hormones.

Back in April We thought we got 6 pullets, but 1 was a cockerel (he was supposed to be a black sex link too!!). Because the mating didn’t really get out of hand until more recently, we didn’t add to the flock last year. So I now see that 5 hens to 1 roo isn’t a ratio that’s working. I am going to look into getting a few more girls- hopefully I can get some adults, as the chicks wouldn’t be mature enough for the rooster for a while.

Their coop is a big outbuilding, about 12’x14’ or so, and the run is about 8’x 12’. They only free range when I am home from work, due to all the foxes and hawks- so they haven’t done that since the snow started to fly. That’s why I don’t know if I could make a tie out work- he would be in an enclosed area, and probably tangle himself up. We are at work all day with no one around to check on him.

It would be difficult to enclose an area for him so he could have coop space and run space, but we may have to find a way. And I did end up finding saddles with wing protectors online, so I will give that a try too.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Being cooped up could be partially the problem. Getting more girls may help, but a youngster is going to still mate very frequently and they do tend to have their favorite girl(s) that get it more than the others. Usually a lower in pecking order girl, but not always.