Pullet suddenly pecking comb. Draws blood.

[Chicken_Bureaucrat]

Her eggs are brown, more brown than standard brown eggs but not chocolate or anything! I got her from a local feed store. My third chicken, a Russian Orloff, was also from that store and has scissorbeak. So perhaps they source from a not too good hatchery? I didn't ask which one.

I've been letting them together for supervised play and the BCM is a lot nicer. She's still curious because the OE's comb is still injured, but once she's healed I think they can go back together safely!

 

[Chicken_Bureaucrat]

Eggs and her healing comb

 

[LaFleche]

For a hatchery 'Marans' her egg colour is nice enough.

With rare breeds like the Russian Orloff, deformities caused by inbreeding occur more often.
How severe is it and is she able to eat enough for proper development? Is she able to preen?

The injured comb seems to heal nicely.

 

[Chicken_Bureaucrat]

For a hatchery 'Marans' her egg colour is nice enough.

With rare breeds like the Russian Orloff, deformities caused by inbreeding occur more often.
How severe is it and is she able to eat enough for proper development? Is she able to preen?

The injured comb seems to heal nicely

It's pretty bad, there is almost zero overlap.

She can slowly eat but she's a lot lighter than the other chickens. She spends a lot of time at the feeder to make up for it. It's hard to handfeed her, she has a strong pecking instinct so she still just smashes her face into the food.


She is still somewhat able to preen but is not the best at it. Her gland looks okay and her surface feathers look good but she has a lot more unbroken pins underneath. The other chickens seem to help if they see any but they can't see the ones underneath so I help with those.

I trim her beak and occasionally brush it because food gets compacted in there. I think I'm most concerned about her weight. I don't care if she doesn't lay well or whatever. I just want her to be okay. Is there anything I should be doing to bulk her up?


And yeah! I think that comb is doing better. They're together in the run a lot more, pretty much whenever we're home and have slept together in the coop without incident. This whole episode has given them terrible laying habits though, none of them lay in their egg box

 

[Chicken_Bureaucrat]

Oh you mentioned white earlobes too. Both the BCM and OE seem to have red or white earlobes at different times. Like they're flushing with blood and then not. Not sure if this means anything?

 

[LaFleche]

Is there anything I should be doing to bulk her up?

There is! You could learn how to tube feed her which will help immensely with gaining a proper weight and her overall constitution.

Hopefully, she will be better soon.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/go-team-tube-feeding-updated-12-29-2019.805728/