Pecked by the rooster

[celticmomma]

I came home a little earlier today to see that one of my hens had been pecked on the back of her neck, my guess is by one of the roosters. They have been doing this a lot, but never hard enough to break skin. Which I try to discourage when I catch them. I flushed the wound with water then peroxide and am letting that dry. The feathers are still there, as is a flap of skin. The wound is a triangle, with one side attached. Should I remove the feathers and skin? Or let them fall off on their own. I have her isolated away from everyone else right now. I haven't put anything else on, as I don't know what to do about the feathers/skin flap that are in the way.

 

[sourland]

The flap will eventually dry up and fall off. How many roosters do you have? This type of injury frequently occurs when roosters are fighting over a hen and trying to knock one another off. It also may be that one of your roosters is a bully. Either situation is best solved by removal of the troublemaker.

 

[celticmomma]

We have 10 total chickens - 8 hens and 2 roosters. 6 were straight run in the beginning so we didn't know how many roosters/hens we had, and we lost two 3 months ago. The roosters have never shown any aggression towards other hens, or us, until about a week - two weeks ago they started attacking the hens. Which looked more like making. The less dominant rooster- who cant really crow, he stays mostly quiet has been more aggressive than the more dominant. Trying to win dominance? We've been contemplating getting rid of at least one rooster - and keeping the other to watch the flock as they are a free range flock. I think now that plan will have to be carried out...