What is this black stuff on my chicken's comb and wattles?

[operator16]

Here is one of my two Red Stars. She's got these black splotches on her comb and wattles. What does this mean? We haven't had any freezing temps. here yet. We've just begun to get a few eggs. They are either from these two girls or the two Barred Rocks. I don't know if that matters though. The two Red Stars appear to be acting and looking healthy except this. Any thoughts you experts may have would be so helpful!

Thank you!

 

[dawg53]

Looks normal to me. Could be some picking/pecking going on. Just keep an eye on them (I know you do) as long as they're eating and drinking normally, all is well.

 

[HHandbasket]

As someone else said, it could be some pecking happening. Could also be early fowl pox. One of my girls had that. If you do a search for fowl pox here on BYC, you'll find a whole lot of helpful threads/information that should help you. When my girl got that, it started with a small lesion on her face that looked like that, like a little dark mole, and within a few days it got HUGE, like a big dark mole. Since her name is Martha, we started calling her Martha The Mole.

Even though she has gotten over it and is much, much better now and the pox/mole has fallen off, she will forever be dubbed Martha The Mole around here.

 

[edselpdx]

I worried about my girls for that last summer, and nothing ever came of it. They still have occasional black specks like that. No fowl pox developed, no obvious pecking going on. Looks fine based on my (limited) experience.