Blood feathers are new feathers that aren’t done growing in that have a direct blood supply. It’s the beginning of the feathers life, when new feathers come in they look like porcupine quills. They’re called pin feathers or blood feathers.
Growing new feathers is necessary for the chickens but not a comfortable venture so I try to leave them alone while it’s going on. You’ll notice it in older birds during the fall when they molt.
Young birds go through an almost constant cycle of new feathers. Aside from looking very strange it’s completely normal and nothing to worry about.
Unless those feathers break. In my experience it’s the large wing and tail feathers that are most likely to get damaged and break.
When they break they’ll bleed all over. You chicken probably isn’t going to bleed to death but a broken blood feather can have fatal consequences.
Chickens are assholes. They will eagerly pick a flock mate to death. They’re basically sharks when it comes to blood.
If you notice a bleeding feather it’s worth catching the bird and taking car of it. These are all pictures of a Muscovy duck with a few broken blood feathers in her wing.
Luckily it’s a very easy fix. All you need to do is pull out the feather. Once the tube holding the pore (follicle?) open is removed the bird will stop bleeding.
It’s easy to do with a pair of pliers but I’ve pulled them out with my fingernails in a pinch.
Hold the bird securely, press down around the feather with one hand and use the other to remove the feather. Grip the bleeding feather with the pliers by the base and pull straight out.
I recommend following up with a spray or two of Blu-kote to cover any remaining blood. Especially if you have a light colored bird.
Blu-kote is a purple antiseptic spray. It will turn you and anything it touches purple so take care when using it. It won’t hurt you but you’ll look like you high-fived a smurf for a week or so.
The duck was more upset by the snuggles than the feather removal.
Broken feathers can happen while fighting or if the birds get caught in something. I used to have my turkeys in a pen with a wire side and they had lots of broken feathers.
It turned out they were rubbing their wings against the wire and breaking the feathers.
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Ashley
Saturday 18th of January 2025
I have a question. We have a 5 month old easter egger who we imagine broke a couple feathers and the blood attracted the others to pick on her. We were gone for the day and didn't notice until we got home late at night. The bleeding had stopped and we cleaned the broken feathers and put medicine on it. That's been over a month ago and no new feathers have come in but she has all those broken feathers on her wings. Should we pull those feathers out? It's a majority of her feathers along the top of the wing(she still flys fine and moves her wings fine) . Or leave them and when she moults she will be fine?
Alecia
Sunday 19th of January 2025
If she's not having any issues with bleeding or the other birds I would just leave the feathers alone and she will lose them with her next molt
Shawna B
Saturday 2nd of March 2024
Thank you so much for writing this article! It sure did come in handy when I had a light colored polish hen break one of her wing feathers trying to get away from a bully hen. I tried to stop the bleeding by just using flour and no-pick. She was preening last night and opened it up again. I did what your article said cleaned her up, & pulled out the broken feather with some pliers. She let out one squawk, then settled right down. Put some no-pick on it along with hen-healer. She quit bleeding right away, and is now going about her business pecking goodies out of the yard. Thanks again!
Jan
Wednesday 2nd of November 2022
I have a 7 year old hen that molted and then the “casing” never sloughed off the new blood feathers on her tail (so they look like really long porcupine quills with a tiny feather poking out of the top of each one). Should I be worried? Should I try to manually take the outside of it off (the quill part)? It’s been 3 weeks.
Alecia
Friday 11th of November 2022
Is she having any trouble with the feathers? It's odd that they haven't opened up yet, does she have access to a dust bath?
I have helped my parrot with his pins in hard to reach areas by gently rubbing them between my fingers, you could try that with your chicken if she'll let you
Jamisyn Edwards
Saturday 27th of August 2022
Hello, I was wondering if it is normal for there to be puss at the end of the “blood feathers” I guess you call it? My silkie rooster has a dried puss spot on his skin in the middle of his tail feathers. I was trying to get a better look and accidentally pulled a blood feathers out, and there was puss and black stuff at the end. I noticed that there were a bunch more like that and just started plucking! He didn’t budge while I did all of this, and all of the ones I plucked had puss in the follicle or “tube”! I also should mention that he recently was attacked by my other silkie rooster( which is now gone) and is now almost fully recovered! I have applied vetericyn to the area, and now have no clue what to do.
Alecia
Tuesday 30th of August 2022
The ends of the feathers usually look gooey, especially if they're very early in their growth cycle. When I've had to pull broken feathers in the past I've found that the birds are more bothered by being handled/restrained than they are from the plucking
Once the damaged feathers are gone there shouldn't be any more bleeding and they will be replaced the next time the bird molts
Kate
Friday 15th of July 2022
My problem is where the rooster hurt her pecking and mating feathers are covered in dry blood could someone help
Alecia
Sunday 17th of July 2022
I would separate her from the rest of the birds, give her a bath to remove the dried blood and figure out where it is coming from. If it's a cut on the skin spray with blukote (the color hides any redness that will attract pecking) or vetericyn (you'd need to keep her alone until it heals if you go this route)