8 week old missing feathers and bleeding

[wiredfrog10]

So my littles are 8 weeks old today. And my Americana chick has decided to beat up my smallest chick the BLRW and so much so in 5 mins this am the Americana plucked a good patch of feathers from her head. I took the BLRW out and looked at he wound just looks like blood is from where the feathers came out. When I put her back everything seemed to be find. Any suggestions so this dosent happen again? And what to do with my chick with the wound?

 

[Stiggy]

separate them!!!!! once they taste blood or can see it they will continue to attack the chick until its been killed ( they are cannibles) . wound powder is great, and clean it with antibacterial wash or very dilute detol works well. try giving them something to do so that they aren't bored, and give them more meat/ meat scraps, and or some dairy like cheese can also help.

 

[cafarmgirl]

You might put some Blu Kote on it to help hide it so it won't attract the others. Now to figure out why it occured. How much space do these birds have?

 

[wiredfrog10]

They are in a run that is 5x 3 ft and 3 ft high they have clumps of grass and perches, along with some sand for dusting a shelter that is big enough for them to all move around in

 

[wiredfrog10]

separate them!!!!! once they taste blood or can see it they will continue to attack the chick until its been killed ( they are cannibles) . wound powder is great, and clean it with antibacterial wash or very dilute detol works well.  try giving them something to do so that they aren't bored, and give them more meat/ meat scraps, and or some dairy like cheese can also help.

Wouldn't they get their meat from bugs? My big girls don't get meat. Other than bugs. If I were to feed meat what kind of meat?

chicken?

 

[cafarmgirl]

How many chickens do you have? 5x3 for a run is actually quite small. You generally want to shoot for a bare minimum of 10 square feet per bird in the run and 4 square feet per bird in the coop. And those are minimum standards. I realize these are young birds, knowing how many will help, but since you already have a pecking issue I'd enlarge their space asap as well as give them things to do. Toss in some alfalfa hay, toss some dried meal worms in the mix so they can "forage" for them, anything to keep them occupied. Chickens are very busy creatures and they get bored and stressed easily.

You can try upping their protein but I don't think that is the issue.

 

[wiredfrog10]

There is 7 in the pen. They have a new pile of goodies to dig threw each day. Generally it's for oatmeal, bugs or fired meal worms. I give grass clippings, weeds, leaves, fresh grass clumps with dirt clumps and without. I know it's not a ton of space but once their coop is finished they will have a proper home and then a huge run for the 7 of them. Their coop will be finished Friday and that will give them a 4x8 coop with 4 ft height plus the bigger run.

 

[Stiggy]

We have always found that if they start plucking then they are looking for a bit of extra protein. Well any meet scraps, like left over ham, luncheon, mince etc, or some dog roll or pet mince can be great. or cheese ( the soft kinds tho this is expensive) your adult birds aren't growing though so they need less, and chances are their feed is higher in protein anyways ( assuming you are feeding pellets as well) . I wouldn't feed them chicken.... its kinda canabalistic, I spose you could but as a general rule you don't feed their species to them, especially in pigs