24 hr chick pecking others constantly. worried i'm going to lose one. Help

amijab

Songster
8 Years
Dec 30, 2011
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I have a chick that is 24 hr old that is constantly pecking at the other feet, head, and if I seperate him he goes crazy and runs around and peck at anything and his own feet. I have no idea what to do. I had to remove all chicks from incubator because there was a bad smell. I have cleaned it out and I am putting this one back in because I need to seperate but he needs to stay warm.
ANy suggestions would be great. Also I have one that was born about 3 hrs before him that was doing good but now just lays around. I was worried he would not make it through the night but he did. Maybe I should put that one back in the incubator and do something else with this one. There are four in all. Two died late deaths without pipping. One cracked and was rotten on day 5. I think that caused the bacteria. I got onto another egg and I did not know to remove it.
 
Maybe try using a piece of cardboard as a divider to separate him temporarily so that he still can benefit from the heat lamp. Provide access to food and water. Maybe then he will stop . Best of luck. Let us know how it turns out.
 
It is a brinsea ecoglow. It is radiant heat. they stay under it ad there is no light.

I'm not sure what "ecoglow" is. I've read numerous articles that state red light discourages pecking -- none that says why it does, but apparently it does. I wondered if the red light made it harder to see red blood??? who knows??? Some breeds of chickens have more "cannibal" characteristics than others. It is one of the characteristics that breeders tried to remove during their breeding -- I'm not sure how many good breeders are left, but up until the 1950's the breeding programs farmers used included those characteristics as less than desirable and wouldn't breed birds that showed a lot of problems in that area.

In an old "Broiler Health Chart" it lists "picking" causes as; feed deficiency, crowding, curiosity, too hot, and can be a vice. Prevention: debeaking, do not overcrowd, feed a complete ration, supply more feeders. I don't think they used "red" lights when this was written.
 

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