Hamburgh rooster injured by fighting

[PuddleEndChicken]

I have a group of 8 Hamburgh rare breed chickens - 2 roosters and 6 hens. They have gotten along really well for 2 years as a group but now it's spring and the roosters are fighting for the first time. The junior rooster seems to be making a bid for control of the flock from the dominant one.

Hamburghs have really large fleshy "rose" combs (here's a generic picture not mine).

The dominant older rooster got attacked by the junior other rooster and it seems that the back of his head has been pecked and all the feathers taken out and his comb is dripping with blood. (I think he got trapped in netting at the side of the run and was a sitting target for the junior rooster to peck at him, don't think spurs were involved).

When I went into the run I had to free him from the netting and he was really dejected and ran away from the junior rooster who ran after him. He waited until the junior rooster had gone up to roost with the hens and he then fed and drank water. One hen stayed with him for a while and then went to roost.

I checked on them all in the night and he had managed to climb the rungs to the henhouse but hadn't managed to go up to roost on the bars but was standing on the floor of the henhouse looking dejected.

I brought him into the house and put him by the heater on some straw with food and water to rest. I noticed that his spongy comb is literally dripping with blood but almost like globules of sweat or clear liquid too - still coming out maybe 10 hours after the attack. The comb looks really shiny and so red I can't tell whether it's blood or fluid. The back of his head has no feathers but the bleeding has dried up on the skin but not on the comb.

Any advice please about whether to try and dry it and also whether to try to clean or disinfect it or just to let it dry out naturally ?

If he gets through this I'll separate him off from the other male at least until he's healed or maybe for the rest of the mating season at least if not permanently.

 

[Eggcessive]

It sounds like there is serum leaking as well as blood. It should eventually stop. Once it does, I would apply some antibiotic ointment or coconut oil to it, to keep it soft as it heals. You really should just have one bantam rooster with the flock at a time, since mature roosters fight. Bantam roosters can especially like to fight. You could rotate them into the flock while caging one in a wired dog crate, then switch them out for periods until you decide which one is the most gentle to the hens. I hope that your injured fellow heals and gets along well. Hamburgs are such beautiful chickens, especially the roosters. I wanted a pair a long time ago, but the hatchery I bought from always sold them all. Even when brought up together, roosters will challenge each other for the top position, and can injure or kill the others.

 

[PuddleEndChicken]

@Eggcessive thank you for this.

This morning the comb has dried out but it's really shrunken and very dark red (not fleshy and pale red). Can I put a human antibiotic cream ? Or I have a chlortetracycline Hcl 2.45% spray that my vet gave me for general animal wounds.....

I have another pen of 3 Hamburghs which is 3 roosters and 3 hens, they are all still junior so not fighting, but should I just leave one rooster in that pen and put all the excess roosters together in their own pen, will they get on well without any hens around ?

I've bred all of these so I can't bear to kill off the excess males and also if anything happens to the roosters with the flock then I would want to have spare males so my stock don't die out...

 

[Eggcessive]

I have used plain Neosporin ointment on wounds. I’m not an expert on raising roosters, but I once had 3 who were in a bachelor quarters. I planned on using them to breed. But 2 of them bullied another, and he ended up spending most of his time on the roost and not getting to eat. So I let them out and rehomed a couple. I have had a new cockerel just walk right in and take over the flock from my head rooster. I had a couple get along okay, but when one would molt, the other would try to take over. You will probably have to see how it goes. I am sure that you would be able to rehome some of your cockerels if someone wants a beautiful rooster. Some breeds of cockerels are more aggressive to other males than others.