i gotta problem.

[dirty]

my rooster got a bit of frost bite on his comb. that didn't seem to be a problem. until sometime this morning the other chickens have started picking at him.

so i have him separated. if it was the other rooster i'd just cull him. but this one is a really good rooster.

so now that i have him separated. it doesn't look to bad, just messy. i think he'll be healed fairly quickly. but i don't think i can put him back, as long as he has dried blood on his head. i think it will just attract the others again.

so, it's going to be relatively warm here the next two days. i'm thinking i should bring him in and wash him.

does that sound reasonable? has anybody ever tried bathing a rooster?

he didn't really seem to mind me picking him up and carrying him to his private cage. i just am not sure how to go about washing him by myself.

[farmerdave]

I don't have chickens myself but I would think it would be like trying to bathe a cat. I don't think he would be very cooperative.

[Deleted]

Go ahead and try it, Dirty. My favorite rooster lets me do just about anything with him. He's sweet, which is why he's my favorite rooster.

Although, if the weather's warming up, there's going to be some fights (well, that's not a guarantee, but it's likely). Mine go at it with each other every time we have a warm spell. I was kicking rooster butts all over the place this afternoon because we're on our 4th day of good (above freezing) weather, and I guess they think it's spring. Right now I have 7 roosters, but only two of them are permanent. The other 5 are the babies that hatched over the summer. And their hormones are absolutely raging! Which brings me to another question - how old are your roosters? They seem to peak at about a year old as far as fighting with each other, then they settle down. At least my two older roosters did. We ate the other ones. And there are five more destined for the stew-pot. Who knows? Tomorrow might be their last day.

But back to your rooster. Is he the dominant one, or the submissive one? If he's the dominant one (usually), he'll lose status with the flock and the other rooster the longer he's separated from them. If he's the dominant one and the only one that's picking on him is the other rooster, I'd cage the other rooster for a while. If he's the submissive one, then caging him wouldn't hurt his status with the other rooster any, but might with the hens.

I've learned it's a tricky balance to maintain the heirarchy in a chicken coop. Not that I should be doing that, but if I hadn't interfered a couple of months ago, my favorite rooster would be dead right now, and I was unwilling to lose him just because one of the other roosters was in a snit. So the other rooster died. He was very tasty.

(That was probably waaaay too much information, huh? LOL!)

~Lannie

[Kathy]

I've washed up chickens who got pecked and lived to tell about it.
If you want to have the comb heal quick; get hold of some Watkins Petro Carbo-it works wonders on humans and poultry. I used a lot of it when I had large flocks.

If the chickens are inside, one way to help stop the pecking is change the heat light to a red bulb-they can't see blood so will not peck it as readily.

[dirty]

farmerdave- he turned out to be a better patient than i am doctor.

Lannie -- the chicken hierarchy is interesting to watch. yes this is a good rooster. i tried to keep him separated as little as possible. he has never made an aggressive move towards me and he treats the hens well.


kathy-- i will have to look for Watkins Petro Carbo. never heard of it. but it might be a handy prep to have around.



well he is back in with the group. i will be up early to keep an eye on the situation. he was only out 28 hours. he immediately went and chased the other rooster. it was warm enough that i turned off the light. i've gone back out since, all is calm. but it is dark, so???


he is the dominate one. if it had been the other one. i would have just culled him. but this guy exhibits all the the good traits i hear about and hadn't seen in a rooster yet. so i am really wanting him to be o.k.

so i tried washing him. he was well behaved. still i could have used an extra set of hands. i didn't get him nearly as clean as i would have liked. he is all white. so the blood really stands out. looks a lot worse than it is.

i did put some petroleum jelly on the feathers above the area being pecked. i had thought i read somewhere that it might help keep the other birds from pecking at the area. has anybody else heard that?

i have my doubts and my fingers crossed.

if it doesn't work i may take him down to the animal shelter where i volunteer. those gals would clean him up right.

[farmerdave]

Glad to hear that all turned out OK.

[Deleted]

I've never heard of petroleum jelly being used to deter pecking, Dirty, but it does help to prevent frostbite if you slather it on their combs.

The petro-carb stuff (whatever the name is) that Kathy suggested would be your best bet. If it's the same stuff I'm thinking of, it's dark (black?) and will cover the blood and THAT will keep the chickens from pecking on him. The blood just drives 'em nuts. Carnivores, I tell you... I know now that all the dinosaurs didn't go extinct. We still have chickens.

~Lannie

[dirty]

well that must be what i heard about petroleum jelly. oops.


anyway, so far so good. wish i could say it was my excellent animal skills. but blind luck seems a better description. i'll be watching closely.

i need to find a better way of dealing with condensation in the coop. that is the starting point for this incident. if i could get the moisture out. i could have kept it a little warmer in the coop.


chickens have always reminded me of those velociraptors in the Jurassic park movie.

[Deleted]

LOL! I was going to say the exact same thing (about Jurassic Park), but I didn't know if you'd seen the movie. Aren't they just EXACTLY like them? Scary! I'm glad chickens aren't really big!

Regarding the moisture, do you have a vent window in the coop? If so, leave it open. If not, can you cut one in? I have two in mine, up near the ceiling, one on the south and one on the north. In bad (really cold) weather, I only leave the south one open, but if it's above freezing, I open them both. Being up near the ceiling, they don't subject the birds to a draft, but they'll let out moisture. Otherwise, I don't know what to suggest.

~Lannie

[dirty]

yea, all they are missing is little arms.


he still looks a mess. but he's healthy and the problem of pecking seems to be over.

i did switch to a red heat lamp. which appears to keep them calmer than regular lights for heat.

the only venting i have is the windows. so i will be putting in some sort of venting near the top of the walls. when it gets a little warmer.

[Deleted]

For pecking and feather loss I use a product called "ROOSTER BOOSTER"...it comes in a little brown plastic bottle with a propper type spout so you can put it right where it is needed. They will not touch the spot where you put that stuff and it covers and heals the featherless/pecked areas fast.

I get bottles of it from the farm store, but it can be ordered online and I keep an extra bottle just in case a bird gets hurt; it healed my old hen when she got attacked by a hawk. I also patched up an old roo who had a fight with a coyote once and he even grew feathers back.

I learned about the stuff when I lived in Texas from some old game fowl handlers. They used to use it on the game roosters after a fight.

TH

[Deleted]

Hey, Dirty, now I gotta problem! LOL! My Teenage Mutant Psycho Roosters have been ganging up on little Bridget (my one White Leghorn hen) and beat her up pretty bad last night. I found her this morning looking like someone had stuck her head in a Cuisinart. She was one very miserable looking little chicken, but I'm happy to report that she is now living in the lap of luxury in a custom outfitted dog crate in the living room. And being spoiled rotten, to boot.

I'm going to try to wash her up tomorrow and see how bad the damage actually is. It looks really bad right now because of all the blood, and her neck feathers are all sticking out at strange angles because of the blood. I think she lost most of the feathers on the back and the sides of her head, poor thing.

We won't have time tomorrow, and Thursday we have to go shopping, but I think Friday there's gonna be some heads chopped off. Those teenage hormones are completely out of control. There'll be more Cream of Rooster soup on the table soon!

~Lannie

[dirty]

that's not good to hear. good luck with the chicken wash. make sure that you have an extra pair of hands to help.


i think the chickens are just getting a little cabin fever.

my experience here showed i need to have a permanent cage for medical emergencies.

[Deleted]

She's OK. Luckily, I had Rich here to hold her while I washed her, but she was really good. The only really bad spot is on the top and back of her head, on the right side of her comb. It looks like one big gnarly scab, so I didn't work on that very much, and besides, she flinched every time I touched it, so it must still hurt pretty bad. But I got the blood washed off the rest of her.

She was SO scandalized when I put her back in her nice clean hotel room (I changed out the bedding while Rich was holding her). She fussed and clucked and shook herself... She's up on her perch right now, cleaning off her bloomers. But that's a good sign that she's trying to clean herself up and get dried off. She was preening this morning as well, but for most of the day she's been pretty quiet, which is quite unlike her. She normally talks quite a bit. So I guess she just needs some quiet time (and good food) to rest and recover from her ordeal. That's just fine with me, though, because I really enjoy having a house chicken.

~Lannie