Hello!
I'm trying to decide when to re-integrate one of my hens back into the main flock. Open to ideas and suggestions. The flock is nine birds total, including her.
Quick Summary: On December 22nd, she got a wound - basically back of her head/top of her neck area - that was a straight-line horizontal slit that was probably 1 to 1.25 inches long. She acted completely normal - really, completely oblivious to her situation. It wasn't actively bleeding drops, but you could see blood in the slit as she moved her head around. I cleaned her up, put some Hen Healer ointment on and around the area. I then put her in my "nursery" area in the coop. It's a penned off section under the poop boards that is probably 10 square feet or so with her own roost bar, led lighting, feed and water. Flash forward to today, the wound area has fully covered/no wound visible, just a featherless spot, maybe a little smaller than a quarter, and I'm seeing the sprouting of pin feathers starting to come in. This area she is in is fenced with hardware cloth, so she's never been totally away from the flock, other than confined to the coop. She's pretty active when the other birds are in the coop, I'm sure she'd like to re-join them. She is, though, the bottom of the pecking order out of the nine birds. I'm trying to ride that line of not keeping her separated any longer than needed, versus the wound area being OK to any re-integration squabbles that might occur.
More details for those interested: I'm at a bit of a loss as to how she got the wound. I know she's the bottom bird, and there had been one bird bossing her around a bit more than the others. However, the low bird would usually just run off and that's where things would end. I don't know if it would have been a pecking that hit just right that would cause it to slit like that, or if she hit something in the run/coop trying to get away and that caused it? It was quite puzzling. There was no blood trail or obvious place that I could see that caused it - still don't know to this day.
She was initially quite fond of me taking extra care of her. For the next four or five days, she would happily come out to me when I let her out of the pen, let me pick her up, hold her, pet her, give her treats. Like, I was a rock star. This was out-of-character for her, but I was happy to provide. She's slowly been reverting to her normal self, and now she enjoys getting let out of the pen but is back to her much more skittish ways. I've been closing the coop door when I let her out just to keep the other birds out while I scoop the boards and give her treat and let her wander the full coop. Today, she was definitely interested in the coop door being closed and acting like she'd be more than ready to leave the coop.
So, that's kind of where things are at. She's been the bottom bird and when I do re-integrate her, I don't expect any of that to change. She seems to have accepted that position as sometimes she'll be sitting away from the other birds on a perch area by herself, but still with the flock in general. My biggest concern is if she did get that injury by being picked on by multiple birds at once or cornered and picked on, that it doesn't just start up again. I so wish I knew how she got injured in the first place. I might just be assuming the worst and it was some freak accident. I can certainly personally monitor the initial re-integration to make sure it doesn't get too rough, but at some point, I'll have to be away and not have immediate eyes on everything going on with them.
Thanks,
Chad
I'm trying to decide when to re-integrate one of my hens back into the main flock. Open to ideas and suggestions. The flock is nine birds total, including her.
Quick Summary: On December 22nd, she got a wound - basically back of her head/top of her neck area - that was a straight-line horizontal slit that was probably 1 to 1.25 inches long. She acted completely normal - really, completely oblivious to her situation. It wasn't actively bleeding drops, but you could see blood in the slit as she moved her head around. I cleaned her up, put some Hen Healer ointment on and around the area. I then put her in my "nursery" area in the coop. It's a penned off section under the poop boards that is probably 10 square feet or so with her own roost bar, led lighting, feed and water. Flash forward to today, the wound area has fully covered/no wound visible, just a featherless spot, maybe a little smaller than a quarter, and I'm seeing the sprouting of pin feathers starting to come in. This area she is in is fenced with hardware cloth, so she's never been totally away from the flock, other than confined to the coop. She's pretty active when the other birds are in the coop, I'm sure she'd like to re-join them. She is, though, the bottom of the pecking order out of the nine birds. I'm trying to ride that line of not keeping her separated any longer than needed, versus the wound area being OK to any re-integration squabbles that might occur.
More details for those interested: I'm at a bit of a loss as to how she got the wound. I know she's the bottom bird, and there had been one bird bossing her around a bit more than the others. However, the low bird would usually just run off and that's where things would end. I don't know if it would have been a pecking that hit just right that would cause it to slit like that, or if she hit something in the run/coop trying to get away and that caused it? It was quite puzzling. There was no blood trail or obvious place that I could see that caused it - still don't know to this day.
She was initially quite fond of me taking extra care of her. For the next four or five days, she would happily come out to me when I let her out of the pen, let me pick her up, hold her, pet her, give her treats. Like, I was a rock star. This was out-of-character for her, but I was happy to provide. She's slowly been reverting to her normal self, and now she enjoys getting let out of the pen but is back to her much more skittish ways. I've been closing the coop door when I let her out just to keep the other birds out while I scoop the boards and give her treat and let her wander the full coop. Today, she was definitely interested in the coop door being closed and acting like she'd be more than ready to leave the coop.
So, that's kind of where things are at. She's been the bottom bird and when I do re-integrate her, I don't expect any of that to change. She seems to have accepted that position as sometimes she'll be sitting away from the other birds on a perch area by herself, but still with the flock in general. My biggest concern is if she did get that injury by being picked on by multiple birds at once or cornered and picked on, that it doesn't just start up again. I so wish I knew how she got injured in the first place. I might just be assuming the worst and it was some freak accident. I can certainly personally monitor the initial re-integration to make sure it doesn't get too rough, but at some point, I'll have to be away and not have immediate eyes on everything going on with them.
Thanks,
Chad
