When chickens attack... apple trees

[hedgewizard]

One of the stupider chooks today decided to fly into, and get tangled up in, an apple saping. She won, and the sapling had one limb torn away from the trunk leaving a jagged wound. I was losing the light by the time I could deal with this, and discovered I had no pruning paint - so I've covered the wound with duct tape until I can get to the dreaded garden centre. Anyone care to suggest how to deal with this? I can't really tidy up the wound since the stem is only as thick as a pencil!

[Christine]

For what it's worth - my solitary apple tree suffered endless indignities when I moved it 15 years ago and survived them all.
If there's nothing to cut back to because it's so young, I should let it try to heal itself.

[hedgewizard]

I've put a good splodge of Heal and Seal (an alginate goop) on it to keep the bugs out, but other than that I'll just leave it be. The chickens may need pruning soon, though!