What would you do if you saw this? (photo)

[nekomi]

Walked out to the coop this morning and saw this on the entrance door to the coop -

It's a long smear of blood, about 2" long. I checked over the hens and they all seemed fine, none are missing or visibly injured, and there were no other spots of blood anywhere in the coop or run.

This is my first year keeping chickens, so I'm unsure of how to handle this. BTW, I have 14 hens - 12 16-week-olds and 2 10-week-olds. What would you do if you saw this in your coop?

 

[marytoast]

I would inspect the chickens to see if anyone was injured.

 

[Chicky Tocks]

I would doubley check the predator proofing of my coop. It might have been a predator that injured it'self trying to get in? Then I would check my chickens again from toenail to comb to make sure that none were injured.

 

[PunkinPeep]

I think i would also keep a look-out, specifically with the ten-week olds, for signs of cocci. That kind of looks like it could've been a bloody poop to me. . . especially since i saw lots of other droppings on that same board. A runny bloody dropping would look just like that.

 

[Chicks_N_Horses]

Just check your chickens over. My roos fight and get a little blood on things every now and then. I wouldn't pay that small amount of blood any attention if it were me besides looking everyone over...


The last poster had a good theory-