My chicken is purple
I don’t know if the Ivermectin is helping Albert or not, but I noticed a couple of days ago that the bald spot was bleeding. Chickens will do that. Even though he’s a strapping big brute, it’s not out of the ordinary for a fellow chicken to sneak up behind him and have an experimental peck on an odd patch of skin.
And once blood is drawn…chickens are absolute piranha with a bleeding chicken. That’s when chicken keepers pull out what we call ‘purple anti-pecking spray’. I bet you’ve guessed what that is already.
Gentian violet.
It acts as a disinfectant and the purple color isn’t nearly as attractive to chickens. Holy hell it goes everywhere, though. And, of course, indelibly stains anything it touches.
When I was a kid, it was seen as a last-ditch treatment for poison ivy. My brother, who was terribly terribly allergic, spent most of his Summers with purple legs.
When my mother was in nursing school, one of the med students was getting married. They chased him down, stripped him and barber-striped his penis. (His fellow male med students, not the nurses).
If that story is apocryphal and every med student knows it, please don’t tell me. I like it too much.
Oh. Right. Purple chicken. Sorry for focus. Albert is never still.
Posted: August 19th, 2021 under animals, birds.
Comments: 13
Comments
Comment from ron
Time: August 19, 2021, 10:05 pm
here in wv, usa, the old farm remedy to stop chickens from pecking each other is to feed them tomatoes, raw maters, mater juice, spegetti sauce, catchup.
anything red and made with ”maters*”.
*maters,,, west virginia hillbilly term for tomatoes
Comment from OldFert
Time: August 19, 2021, 10:56 pm
In the color picture Albert resembles the store clerk at the Quicki-Mart.
Comment from MrsMGunz
Time: August 19, 2021, 11:02 pm
Purple Chicken is a great band name. Even I’d buy tickets, and I’m kinda cheap with things like that.
Comment from durnedyankee
Time: August 19, 2021, 11:57 pm
More feared than the Great Blue Chicken of Chelsea!
Oy! that weren’t a chicken!
Comment from Anonymous
Time: August 20, 2021, 12:34 am
Staying on subject, the teams at university of Delaware are known as the Fighting Blue Hens.
Going off subject, but still chicken focused …
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/honstavlan-picturesque-chickens
Comment from Deborah HH
Time: August 20, 2021, 1:41 am
What colors can chickens see? I understand that they are very smart on the animal scale. I think I’d put a lot of Gentian violet on Albert’s head. It’s definitely bad-ass, and it looks pretty cool. Is Albert the only male?
Speaking of tomato products (@ron)—how is Uncle Badger’s garden?
Comment from Bob Mulroy
Time: August 20, 2021, 4:57 am
Well now, he’s right purty!
One part of liquid bleach
Two parts white vinegar
Eight parts of water.
This is a good disinfectant wash for most small animals and especially chickens.
You still need to use the purple.
Comment from Pupster
Time: August 20, 2021, 10:19 am
We’re so sorry, Purple Albert. But you haven’t had a bloody peck all day.
Comment from Some Vegetable
Time: August 20, 2021, 12:52 pm
I never saw a purple-headed chicken
And I never hope to see one,
But I can tell you anyhow …
Oh snap! How does that go?
Comment from Surly Ermine
Time: August 20, 2021, 5:25 pm
Wonder if that stuffs the same as our Blu-Coat?
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: August 20, 2021, 6:45 pm
“I’d rather see than be one” Some Veg.
Deborah, chickens can see the full spectrum, but they see warm colors – particularly reds – very vividly. For one thing, it helps them spot food in green grass. Also, they tell a lot about each other from the redness of their combs. Red comb on a hen = good time to mate (as opposed to babies, or pale winter hens).
Sadly, no. Albert is not my only rooster. I have *four* because I’m too soft-hearted to cull the extras. I’m not really fit for livestock keeping.
Comment from durnedyankee
Time: August 20, 2021, 7:23 pm
If you were looking for purple, look no further than PVC Purple Pipe Primer.
Talk about your permanent purple.
Comment from Bob Mulroy
Time: August 20, 2021, 9:00 pm
Don’t worry maam, they’ll cull each other soon enough.
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