Silkie hen got her neck pecked open

[43jeeper]

I tried to merge my three silkies, all female, with my larger flock of 7 mixed hens. I knew they got picked on a bit, seen it happen, but figured it was something they had to work through.

Yesterday I found one of the silkies hiding and when I pulled her out of her hidey-hole, I found a good 1x1 area on the back of her neck completely pecked open, through the skin, to the neck muscle inside. I seperated her from the flock and put her in a cage all her own, after a bit of first aid. Im wondering if she'll make it, she seems to be stumbling around in the cage. Time will tell. Ive also seperated the other two silkies from the main flock.

Question - is this a common injury when introducing new members? I used some hydrogen peroxide to sanitize the wound and neosporin and a bandage as first aid. Is that sufficient?

Can I clip their beaks or something to make their pecks less harmful to each other?

 

[terryg]

Pecking is normal. When it reaches the sort of aggression when there is a serious wound, then it is not. Often it's a management issue. Silkies are not easy to merge into flocks, especially established flocks. It's easier to have a mixed flock when they've all grown up together. I have a FAQ about merging flocks here:http://hencam.com/faq/introducing-new-hens/
Chickens can come back from very serious wounds. The first thing is to separate the hen from the flock, as a red wound will incite the others to keep pecking. If the wound is deep, I'd worry about infection. You can put her on antibiotics. Hydrogen peroxide can be harsh on the wound. Providone is my favorite antiseptic. For milder wounds blu-kote both darkens the skin and cleans things up. Depending on the wound depends on whether you bandage it or leave it open. Read this post to see what I did for a hen with puncture wounds: http://hencam.com/henblog/2008/06/buffys-ongoing-recovery/
BTW, she recovered fully and even grew all of her feathers back!