- Oct 8, 2015
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I have 18 five week old Easter Egger chicks that have been out in the coop for about 2 weeks. I have them in my Great Dane's old dog crate that's 3ft wide x 4ft long x 45in high. I have provided them with two roosts...one lower, one higher. During the day, the seem quite happy & enjoy watching my 3 older hens thru the bars & mimicking their behaviors. My problem is at night....the moment it starts to get dark they don't hop on the roosts. Instead, they all dogpile on the floor in one corner of the crate & I'm concerned someone is going to smother. The coop is far from too cool....it's currently 85 in there at 8pm.....so I don't think that's the cause. They seem to want to roost with the older hens but I sat and watched this evening while they tried roosting with the adult hens & I saw too much pecking going on from the adults to feel comfortable allowing the chicks to mingle until they're another month old. Why are the chicks dogpiling & what can I do about it to keep everyone safe?