they drew blood today (update)

[Bearsfan]

One of my BO's was yanking some feathers out of my White EE. By the time my wife got outside they were done. The EE had some blood at the top of her comb area right where the feathers start. She took the EE out of the run and put her in a separate enclosure. When I got home I cleaned her up and trimmed the blood stained feathers down. there is a very small scabby feather stump left as small as the ball point of a pen. Is it safe to leave her in with the others tomorrow? I put her back in for the night, the coop was quiet after she climbed up on the roost and they acted like nothing happened. I have seen them picking on each other before but that was not like this. My wife said that the BO was on her back and ripping feathers out of her neck.

They are about 10 weeks old.

Should I trust them alone tomorrow? (They will be unsupervised most of the day in a secure coop/run)

 

[peaceful]

I'm not sure that I would. Have they ever done anything like this before? I would observe them in the coop in the morning as much as possible, check in with my gut feeling and then decide.

 

[Bearsfan]

No, they have never done this before.

They raise their feathers and dance around each other or maybe take a swipe at each other once in a while but not like this.

One of the White Rocks broke it up. My Rocks are a bit bigger all around and ran over and pecked the BO once in the head and it was over.

 

[Bearsfan]

Well, I took the EE out of the run today. The BO was following her around and pecking her on the back of the head. I pulled the EE out of there and put her in a rubbermade bin by herself. She went on a field trip to grandma's house and spent the day over there.

When I got home tonight we let all the girls out and reintroduced the EE in the bunch. Everyone seemed to get along until that same BO saw her and started blasting her in the head and ripping out feathers. I pulled the BO out this time. The rest of them seem to be getting along now. I guess I will give them a day or two without the BO in there and see how they do. The scab on the EE's head is really small today, it is barely noticeable. If she does fine in there without the BO I think I will re-home or eat the BO.

Does it sound like I'm going about this right?

(Mods, if this needs to be moved now I understand. I probably should have posted in the behavior section.)

 

[crazy chook]

If the BO is the trouble maker then that is who I would get rid of.

 

[ranchhand]

I may have missed a mention of sexes. Do you have a BO rooster in training, at 10 weeks?

Good move to take the BO out though. It rearranges the pecking order and will give the EE a chance to regain status.

 

[Bearsfan]

Quote:
I don't think this is a roo. I've had my suspicions about one of the Rocks and my darker EE, but I think this is a hen.

I can't have roosters here, so if it is one I will be getting rid of it anyway.

 

[Bearsfan]

Here's a pic of the offending hen. I posted a thread in the breed/gender section and everyone thinks hen there also. Thread is here -http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=356866

With this one out of the equation things seem very nice around the flock. They are still doing there little pecking order stuff but nothing is getting out of hand. The EE seems to actually win some of these little challenges when the BO isn't around.

I have the offender in the garage in a rubbermade with bedding and a screen top at night and I am setting her up outside in her own pen away from the others during the day. I feel bad for the BO but don't know what else to do if removing her seems to fix the problem. She is very friendly and gentile with me and the family. I think I might slap together a small tractor for quarantine use and let the BO stay in it for a while so I can make sure I'm making the right decision here. That will give me time to see how the flock progresses with this change and may open up a re-homing opportunity for the BO.