Help! Mould on feathers?

I wrote on here, a couple of weeks ago,about my three chickens showing signs of mould on their skin. (Thanks again for all your help and suggestions) After going through all the motions it seemed that it was just our chickies moulting and that the green was through poor ventilation - a simple thing to solve.

Our third and final chickie started to moult just before Christmas and to my horror, the other two turned on her. They just kept pecking her. The worse it got the more they pecked. We treated her with purple spray but we didn't actually realise the true extent of it until we went away for a couple of days at new year and left our neighbours and my mum and dad doing the duties. My mum rang me on new years eve, quite upset, to say that our little hen was in quite a mess.

We went straight home - and I am really glad we did - she was in shreds. We took her to the vet, thinking she wouldnt be coming back. He said there was no point in stitching her up because it would make too much of a mess. We just had to wait for her to improve and heal. She lives in a box in our conservatory at night now and has the run of the garden in the day. I feel so sorry for her though, she would love to get back in to the run with the other two but is too simple to realise that they would kill her.

Now I know to all you hardened chicken keepers out there, I must sound as soft as muck. It's probably a fact of chicken life that this happens. But these birds are our pets, the eggs are obvi a bonus, but we brought them as pets and I had no idea they could be that vicious to one another. Thing is, i am feeling quite hostile towards the other two now because of what they have done. I am sure it will pass as our little hen improves. We are just hoping that her feathers grow back properly from the damage done to her skin. It would be such a shame for her to have to live alone.

Aware of how sappy I have made myself sound, my main concern is how she can lay her eggs. She escaped into the run on New Years Day to lay an egg , for which she was attacked again, but since we have not let her back in she hasn't laid an egg. I don't think she feels happy about laying it anywhere other than her nesting box which is not really an option under the circumstances. I have made her a temporary nest box but she just isnt interested in it. We thought she might lay in her night box but nothing yet. Any ideas anyone?

Thanks

Make sure her temporary nest box is dark and secluded.  Put an egg in there for her to realise that's where eggs go.  Put her in there occasionally so she can get used to it.

Hi All,

Thanks for the support!

She is still in contact with the other two through the wire of the run so you never know - I realise it's unlikely that they will have her back but until she has grown some feathers back we aren't worrying about it too much. She seems to be improving by the day, and new feathers are coming through now, obvi not on her scabs bless her, think that is going to take a good while to heal), but its all a good sign.

We are going close the nest box off this afternoon for a bit and see if she needs to lay. I do feel so sorry for her  :cry: