red skin, new feathers or plucking?

[ejskipps]

Hey everyone,

I have had hens for 2 years, but this is my first year with chick's (I got my hens at ~6 months) and I guess you could say I'm an anxious parent with a few questions!

I have 7 chick's total, 2 black australorp, an ameraucana, black and white polish, a specked polish, a speckled sussex, and a barred rock. They are almost a month old and I have noticed that my black and white polish has a red spot on her head. I wanted some advice if this is normal as the head feathers come in or if I should be concerned about feather plucking. They have a feather duster, but they are getting a bit big and rambunctious for the brooder/small chicken housing they are currently in.

any advise would be great!

Elise

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

A little more information would be helpful as the answer that I would give with just the information above would be - it could be either/or, or even a combination causes.
Can you take and post a photo of the area in question as well as the group as a whole? How much space (dimensions of coop and run) is the group of 7 currently sharing? Is it only the Polish showing this? Birds with head-dress, such as Polish, are common targets of plucking by their flockmates. Not only does the additional feathering make an attractive target, but those that are able to grow in a full head-dress will often have their vision impeded by the feathering and that complicates matters as it makes it difficult for them to see and avoid an incoming peck....at the age of your birds, the former is the concern - but as they do grow the latter is something to be aware of for your Polish.

 

[azygous]

I second everything Grey Mare said.

When you describe the size of your brooder, and tell us whether the chicks are getting any outdoor time to romp with some real space and interesting things to see and do, we can only try to imagine your circumstances, which may not even be accurate.

If your victim has a wound, a photo would be helpful, but I can advise that some Blu-kote painted on any skin showing with or without broken skin will assist in healing the wound and disguising it.

But you probably will continue to have more problems like this until your chicks have some real space to run and play. Keep in mind what Grey Mare said about the head dress being an attractive target for curiosity. Chickens will focus on anything that is different about any of them. So you need to provide diversions. Do you happen to have an old badminton set? Those little shuttlecocks would provide something similar to pay attention to, and after a period the chicks could become desensitized to the Polish's crest.

Any time I find my chickens targeting something unacceptable, I try to find something that looks similar but benign, and scatter a LOT of them around the run. Soon it becomes yesterday's news, I remove them, and all goes back to normal.

 

[ejskipps]

Sorry for my slow response. They are in a large rubbermaid (16×30), once they got bigger we split them into 2 groups with a second rubbermaid. Today was their first day outside, but the nights are cold so they will be together in a smaller space at night time. I tried to get a picture, but she is a moving target!

I will try to find some toys or something to keep them entertained. Any suggestions for toys or treats that will keep them busy?

They really enjoyed the outdoor coop, I am hoping that their ability to get away from one another and all the next sounds and activities will also help with any plucking.

Thank you!

 

[azygous]

I've had pretty good luck with Blu-kote discouraging further predations on picked over skin.

If that fails, you can try various concoctions formulated to taste terrible to chickens that work on some villains and not on others. If you can't find Pic-no-mor or something similar, you can make your own out of Vicks, grape Kool-aid powder (sugarless),and Pepto-Bismol. It is a very close facsimile of Pic-no-mor.

As for diversions in the run to discourage feather picking, I've had enormous success with scratch/flock blocks. My chickens' feather picking has fallen off considerably since they spend most of their day time hours pecking at the flock block. Even my five-week old chicks have become addicted to working on the block. TSC, Big R, and most feed stores carry them and they're inexpensive and one will last almost a year in an average flock.

 

[ejskipps]

Thank you azygous I will definitely look for the Blu-kote. My older hens didn't seem interested in the flock block when I had one, but there were only 3 of them and with the 7 chick's it might be a hit.