This afternoon I decided to spend some time with the birds handing out treats. I've been pretty sick and didn't like that I hadn't been able to do my usual chores that get me around them, so I was determined to just hang outside for awhile.
Then I happen to look down and see a huge drop of blood.
I immediately started looking for feathers or a trail of blood, thinking a fox had grabbed a bird.
No one was missing and there was no sign of trauma so I started trying to check the birds for signs of blood or injury.
I finally saw that one of the roosters (that we plan to keep) had a lot of blood on one of his toe nails. It was bright red and still bleeding but he didn't seem to be limping and I didn't see any other signs of injuries so I'm not sure what happen.
Nothing else seemed wrong so I decided to leave him alone, it wasn't like he was letting me get anywhere near him anyway.
But when I went to count the birds and lock up the coops I heard a splat sound. I thought it was just a bird pooping from the perch until I shined the light over in that area and saw these two huge piles, about the size of a large lemon under the rooster.
There was blood on the top perch that he wasn't even on and on the feed can lid. And then I looked at him.
It was dark so the pictures didn't turn out well, but he had blood all over the side of his face, his ear lobe, and his neck. Against his wishes, I grabbed him and brought him in the house.
I put him in a sink of warm water and tried to wash his feathers clean. I cleaned him enough to be able to check him over and I couldn't find a single injury besides the broken toe nail. I'm not sure how the blood got all over his face unless he was trying to scratch his neck.
We set up one of the cages in the basement next to the chicken brooder and put him down there for the night with fresh food and water.
I can't imagine the boys will be sleeping in since this guy likes to crow bright and early in the morning and he is right under their bedrooms.
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