Rooster bloody tail, being pecked, feathers broken off

[ValerieJ]

Unfortunately, all of my coops have different groups of chickens or guineas in them. I would end up with an even more traumatic situation for everybody if I tried to put him in a space with others. I have the same predator overload up here but my coops are in sight and easy reach of the house.

Interesting you said to separate the aggressor. Do you think the rest would leave him alone if I put her in the kennel instead? He is the injured one so I'm not sure how the other hens would react to the bloody areas, even if they have been ignoring it so far.

I would keep him safe until you have the Blu-Kote. Then when you reintroduce him, if she goes after him, separate her for a few days to a week. Sometimes this allows the pecking order to adjust and she comes back in at a disadvantage. I have tried this and it worked after a couple days and other times it failed, so I ended up taking the aggressor out for a couple weeks and then it worked. However, it was in a separate coop and run, not in a crate. I just think he will be fine once you have the Blu-Kote. And btw, it's medicinal as well. Usually once I have that on, I just keep an eye on the chicken and reapply as needed. Works for me, and one thing I unhappily have a fair share of experience with is aggressive chickens. All is calm now, but I have 4 littles, so we'll see. LOL Well, I have one aggressor, but she is only aggressive with me. She is actually quite adorable, but every few days I have to pick her up and carry her around for a few minutes to remind her who is boss. She growls the whole time. I just love her.

 

[Trevorusn]

Blu-kote is the way to go, I used it on a busted spur and its awesome how much it helps in healing. I would agree on using a good size dog crate for now till the little guy is healed up. And yes, pullets can sometimes be dominating over a cockerel, especially with a visible wound. I have 2 ISA Brown pullets 6 months old that boss around my 3 year old SF roo, it happens.

 

[minaayindra]

Since this is a Cockerel, I would keep him separated. Leave all the pullets together.

Space may be an issue too - you have about 72sqft and 7 chickens, that's 10sqft per bird, but...some flocks need more space in order to get along better, some don't.

How much would they need? This stinks because the company said it would hold way more than 7.

 

[minaayindra]

Blu-kote is the way to go, I used it on a busted spur and its awesome how much it helps in healing. I would agree on using a good size dog crate for now till the little guy is healed up. And yes, pullets can sometimes be dominating over a cockerel, especially with a visible wound. I have 2 ISA Brown pullets 6 months old that boss around my 3 year old SF roo, it happens.

They can boss him, just not murder him!

 

[minaayindra]

I would keep him safe until you have the Blu-Kote. Then when you reintroduce him, if she goes after him, separate her for a few days to a week. Sometimes this allows the pecking order to adjust and she comes back in at a disadvantage. I have tried this and it worked after a couple days and other times it failed, so I ended up taking the aggressor out for a couple weeks and then it worked. However, it was in a separate coop and run, not in a crate. I just think he will be fine once you have the Blu-Kote. And btw, it's medicinal as well. Usually once I have that on, I just keep an eye on the chicken and reapply as needed. Works for me, and one thing I unhappily have a fair share of experience with is aggressive chickens. All is calm now, but I have 4 littles, so we'll see. LOL Well, I have one aggressor, but she is only aggressive with me. She is actually quite adorable, but every few days I have to pick her up and carry her around for a few minutes to remind her who is boss. She growls the whole time. I just love her.

Yes, I have one cantankerous hen who lives with guineas. Every time she's been introduced to other chickens, she goes on the attack and terrorizes them, even though she is smaller. Since she's the only one I've started with as a senior bird, it has been a nightmare trying to set her up elsewhere without the guineas- I am at the point that I feel she might have to stay with them but then she terrorizes the only young pullet in there as well. Loves me to death so I'm not sure what that says about her- either she is infatuated with humans or she is simply trying to get me to let my guard down so she can kill me in my sleep.

 

[minaayindra]

These are the pictures I finally got- and it was a workout!

it’s hard to see but he has tons of long bloody quills sticking up. Irrigation doesn’t get to it and the triple antibiotic ointment was impossible to apply through all those.

 

[Raymber]

It is exactly where the preening gland is but he has multiple feathers broken off and large broken quills sticking out of his skin there. You are not saying to remove the quills, are you? Did you keep him isolated after you washed it out?

I only removed the broken feather(s) that were bleeding. Normally it was only one or two at a time. Once the bleeding broken feathers were removed and he was free of blood I put him back out. The girls wouldn’t peck him since they didn’t see blood. I figured he did it himself as new feathers were growing in, and when he was preening himself he must have hit the newly growing feathers.

 

[ValerieJ]

How much would they need? This stinks because the company said it would hold way more than 7.

Actually the rule of thumb is 4 sf per chicken in the coop and 10 sf in the run, but my chickens would be unhappy with that. They are mostly Orpingtons and they are pretty big. Different things work for different flocks. Usually what the prefab coop says it will house is about half of what it will accommodate. There are things you can do to help out the pecking situation. Put some obstacles in the run so the rooster has places to go to get away from the aggressive hen. This will be helpful to all of them, because aggressive hens will often move on to a new victim if their target is removed. You may already have this. The more interesting you make their run the better. Various roosting places are good too.

 

[minaayindra]

And these are my biggest guys... so now I need to find them bigger digs but I spent thousands of dollars on this coop that’s too small, and they certainly won’t take it back. I guess it could become a hospital coop and hold them until I can get a bigger one up here.

 

[ValerieJ]

And these are my biggest guys... so now I need to find them bigger digs but I spent thousands of dollars on this coop that’s too small, and they certainly won’t take it back. I guess it could become a hospital coop and hold them until I can get a bigger one up here.

I feel your pain. My DH built my first coop just big enough for my first six, well big enough for 8 technically, but since it's not a Walk-in seems to small for 8. Whe. we got a few more chicks he built another coop. Eventually I bought a prefab for just a little more space for segregation. Two years later that one is on its last leg. We will be building a new large walk in this spring that will hold all my chickens. It's must one grand experiment after another around here.