Please help..Bloody chickens.

[tfb4me]

So over the past couple day we had an egg or 2 with blood on them. Thinking it was something somewhat normal as our hens are getting to be 10 months old the eggs are finally consistently larger I just thought it was normal bleeding, until today that is. When I went out this AM to collect eggs I noticed a rather large puddle of blood in the nest box. I never handle our birds so I figured this was the time to see what was going on. I have 2 birds that are bleeding heavily from the oviduct (sp?) area. It looks to me as thou the other birds are picking at them and actually eating the sore spot. I'm not impressed because as I had said earlier they are just now finally laying large eggs. We have 7 in total. They are the ready to lay pullets from Frye's hatchery here in Ontario Canada. we have been feeding them the Masters feed from TSC but recently TSC had run out of stock so we had to switch to another brand from the local feed supplier. Oddly enough this is the same time this started happening. I'm wondering if these birds will ever stop? I don't have the room to keep them apart. Mind you they are as of right now (the 2 injured birds) in an old rabbit grow out cage, I'm thinking I may have to put down the entire flock and start new in the spring. Is there anything that can be done? I'm an old time thinker here. We live in the city and don't have all that much room. What can be done if anything? Thanks folks!

 

[Nimby Chickens]

First separate the bloody ones to get a good look at the damage. The others will pick at them, making it worse, so you will need to treat the area (wash, pat dry, apply antibiotic ointment aka neosporin) and then spray with Bluekote (aka blue lotion spray) so that you can put them back with the others and they won't pick the wounds.

There are so many things that could have caused this - rats, overcrowding, injury so take a good look at your set-up and make a guess. We can help you more if you give more info.

There is no need to cull and start over - an injury is not something that will cause sickness unless it gets infected.

 

[tfb4me]

Ok I will wash them up and check to see what damage has been done. I dont have rats. That im sure of. Were in the dead of winter here and with almost daily snowfall amounts id see foot prints in the fresh snow. The coop sixe is 6x8 with a side room of 2x6 for food and water. Thier run outdoors is 10x8. for 7 birds do you think that is overcrowded? I already have them seperated. Ill call TSC to see if they have bluecoat.. The only reason I was considering a cull was cause I thought once they got a taste for blood it will never stop? Thanks

 

[cafarmgirl]

I agree with Nimby Chickens that a lot of variable could have been the start of this. But, now that they've gotten the idea to start pecking it can be a very hard habit to break. Yes you'll have to keep the injured birds separate until they heal, and then you might have some issues with re-introduction. Chickens can be such a pain in the backside about this! You may have to reintroduce through a fence at first or while out in the yard/run. Watch them carefully and if you notice you have an aggressive instigator pull that bird out for a while and see if the other's settle in.

Good luck, hope you can work things out.