How to get rid of an aggressive chick

[Volcanic Egger]

I have two batches of chicks from Meyers, one at 10 weeks and one at 6 weeks. With each batch I had an aggressive girl and no matter what I tried, as soon as I put her back with the others, the attacks began immediately. I live on 5 acres and could have easily let them lose and the coyotes, foxes, skunks, and weasels would have made short work of them but I didn't have the heart.

From the first batch I had an olive egger that was fine with the others through 5 weeks in the brooder. After 5 weeks I put her and the other 7 into the new coop I built. The next day I started to hear cries from the coop and found the olive egger pecking and grabbing the others especially one that I now call "Stubby" because the bad girl plucked out all her tail feathers and the poor chick was bloody all around her tail and her back. Of course once the wounds were open, all the other chicks joined the attack. So I tried all the common remedies of separating her from the others and some other tactics. None of them worked. I put some of that nasty stuff on the injured chick so the others would let her alone and now at ten weeks she is regrowing all her tail feathers and back feathers. I still call her stubby and she is very friendly to me as I hand nursed her and fed her during her recovery. Since Stubby was the Meyer Meal Maker, I still have no idea what breed she is. Brown is all I know at this point. Maybe a Buckeye

From the second batch, all 10 got along fine in the brooder and once again as soon as I put them in the new coop, the smallest BCM started the same aggressive behavior. Geesh Is my new coop haunted or something? Two chicks got bloodied up including my Lavender Orpington Roo. So I tried the isolation routine with her as I had done before. And again, no luck with that.

So here is what I did:

Chick One
Took her in a box over to the local feed store with a note on the box saying " Free Chick...Great with People. Will lay olive colored eggs." Somewhat like the old leaving a baby on the doorstep routine. I went over to the ten or so pens they had setup with different breeds of chicks and started looking at other chicks. I set the box down on top of one of the pens and casually walked away. I still hope that Zora found a new home.

Chick Two
Well I couldn't exactly do the same trick twice now could I? So I needed a new scheme. This time I took the bad chick directly into the feed store holding it in my hand. I don't get why the most aggressive chicks were the most people friendly but I walked into the store with her and walked up to the counter. I said " Hi, As I was pulling into your parking lot I found this little chick running around scared. " The two girls at the counter both said "Ah, poor thing. Somebody left a pen open this morning." So they gladly took it from me and put her in with other black chicks they had, probably Australorps.

I tried both times to give the chicks away to someone but the someone always lived too far away. So I got rid of two chicks in the most humane way I could think of.

 

[Pinkaboo]

Oh you bad person that's so sneaky but very good!
I have had chicks that seem to peck and bully the others but I tell them off
And it seems to work after a few days of say NO! You,ll go on the naughty step etc
But if I every get a really bad one I,ll know what to do
Pass the problem on to some poor unsuspecting person

 

[Volcanic Egger]

Pecking is one thing but puling out all the tail feathers and leaving other chicks bloodied and torn up is another thing. The second bad chick was really bad and she was smaller than all the other chick!. Actually I hope under a new flock and a completely different pecking order, the bad chicks might be able to grow up and have a good home. At least the bad chicks get a chance to live.

 

[Peeps61]

That's how I see it. I enjoyed your story in the other thread about the "meanie" chick! I wouldn't have the heart to leave them in the wild either. They would suffer before they got eaten either way. At least leaving them in the feedstore gave them a chance to get a good home. Our feedstore will often accept free chicks for rehoming if they are roosters, or if they aren't working out. I live in a small farming community just north of Pensacola, so the chicks go pretty fast when he has them to sell. And, you are correct in that a different set of chicks and a different pecking order probably will make all the difference. If I were in your situation and I had older birds, that's where the bully would go for a short period of time, just to find out that it's not all that much fun to be on the receiving end of the bigger girls' beaks!