Small amounts of blood in the brooder on roosts

[bbowen]

My 7 Barred Rock girls are 34 days old. I've just noticed small amount of blood on the boards I was using for roosts, also a little on the edge of the brooder. No one appears injured. I know chickens tend to go crazy at the sight of blood so I'm hoping whatever it is I can find it.

 

[eponagirl]

Can you get a picture? Does it look like blood from pecking or bloody poo?

 

[bbowen]

Yeah, I can get one in the morning. It's straight red drops/smears. It doesn't appear to contain poop. Its near poop but that's only because they poop everywhere!!

 

[teach1rusl]

That happend in my coop when my girls were older...maybe three months. I couldn't find any obvious damage, so all I could figure was that someone had gotten nicked on a comb, or maybe a foot or toenail... I kept my eyes open and that was the only incident/time. Never found out what had happened...

but everyone appeared well.

 

[kryptoniteqhs]

ive noticed people have been posting this exact same question a lot lately....i guess its normal?

 

[Rowzy]

This happened to me, and it turned out one of my chicks had a bloody toenail. I took the chicks out and cleaned the blood up but thats it. How much blood is it? Have you checked the chicks feet?

 

[bbowen]

Yeah, I've checked everyone as best I can. Only one will let me hold her the rest run. So I figured it best not to harass them since they get so worked up. They're more likely to injure themselves.

I put a new roost in last night and didn't notice any more blood this morning.

I have blood pics but I can't post them from work, so I'll do that tonight.

 

[bbowen]

Here are the pics:

The boards are 3 inches wide to give you and idea of the size. These are the first roost I made for them and they were low to the ground so they crapped all over them.

I just noticed a little bit more on the new roost I put in. Smaller amount then these pics.

 

[Rowzy]

Are those corners sharp and does the screw poke out at all (the pointy end) where the chicks could get to it? From where the majority of the blood is located it looks like whoever cut themselves probably did it on that corner. Personally I wouldnt worry about it unless it happens again, it could just be a fluke. However I am no chicken expert, so I claim no actual information - just what I would do

 

[bbowen]

Nah, the screws are set down in. The wood isn't sharp by my standards but maybe not by a chicken's! They were out running around when I added on the pen so maybe they got into something. I just looked at everyone's feet and didn't see anything.

They don't seem to peck at each other and no one is missing any feathers.