What's this on her face? (fowl pox?)

[Birdigo]

I noticed something on one of my bantam orpingtons recently. She seems to have these two white patches, one on each side of her face. It looks like it might be the beginnings of fowl pox?? This is my first year with chickens, so I have no first hand experience of this.

For context, she is a black orpington bantam- about 7 months old and started laying for the first time a couple weeks ago. It's the tail end of winter where I live, though it's a mild Australian winter and it's been warming up. Other than the white patches on her cheeks that I've only observed in the past couple days, she has been laying consistently with well shaped eggs and no sneezing, wheezing, mucus from anywhere etc. From what I can tell, she is not bullied and is the "top hen" of the flock. I don't see this on any of my other hens yet, but I will do a more thorough check on everyone tomorrow afternoon.

Does anyone know what this is? Is it of any concern, should I quarantine her from the flock ASAP?

 

[Eggcessive]

It could be healing peck wounds. Pox is more common when mosquitoes are out during hot weather. If that was pox, and I doubt it, it would be the most mild case.

 

[Birdigo]

Ah, I think you're probably right in a sense. I have a hunch that she's been rubbing her cheeks on the hanging feeder. It has partitions throughout that stops chickens from flinging out feed, though they still try and might scrape that area of their faces. Likely that, or some face pecking. I checked my hens again and couldn't find anything else.