PLEASE HELP!! EATING EACH OTHERS Tails and wings

[GreenLove]

My chicks are three weeks old. Have fresh water and plenty of food. They have grit available and have a nice size piece of sod/dirt/grass in their pen. I check on them a few hours ago and everything was fine, now they are eating each others tails and wings, there is one with no tail!!! I have 25 chicks, I don't have 25 chicken coops to separate them, crap...i'm so upset right now!!! please help me, do I put something on them??? I have separated the worst 5, almost all of them are my buff brahmas..

 

[Odelia]

How much space do they have? By the five worst do you mean the most pecked or the one who are doing the pecking?

 

[GreenLove]

I have the five worst that are hurt separated. I just measured their brooder, it is 4 ft x 4ft and 2 ft high with branches to perch. Is there something that I can put on them ointment? to make them stop. It's like as soon as they see something red they are relentless. The peckers are even eating the blood stained pine shavings, what the hell is happening! (what i mean by peckers is the ones being bad!)

 

[GreenLove]

ANYONE???????????????? Are they lacking something? Do I need to give them some sort of supplement?

 

[JackE]

Your brooder is a bit small for 25 chicks. If crowded, they will pick at each other. If it was me, I would go to HomeDepot, or Lowes, and get some plywood and 2X3"s and build me a bigger brooder, like 4X8'. The chicks grow fast, and they need some room.
I had a group of chicks a couple of years ago. Two of my baby EEs were getting picked at. What I did, was put them in a chicken wire enclosure, in the brooder, to keep them from being picked at. They had their own water, and food bin, in there with them. After they healed up, I pulled the separator out, and let them rejoin the rest.

 

[Eggcessive]

Do you have a red brooder light? It needs to be up high for 3 week olds to keep the temp low enough--75-80 degrees F. Red lights will discourage pecking. Are they on a 20% protein chick starter/grower feed? Boredom, too low of protein, and a lack of room are the reasons many chicks will peck. BluKote is good to put on red peck wounds, or keep those separated.

 

[GreenLove]

Yes I have a red brooder light. I will try raising it, but when I did that a few days ago they huddled underneath it so i lowered it again. They are on manna pro organic chick starter, it says minimum protein is 19%. Is 4ft x 4ft too small a space? they just turned 3 weeks yesterday. I can put them outside in the coop, but its 18 degrees out.

 

[GreenLove]

Ok, I will make them a bigger brooder.

 

[MrsHatz]

By 3 weeks you will want a lot more space, some day 1 - 2.5 square feet PER chick. Part of why they pick is they are confined. Plus chickens are omnivores, and opportunistic cannibals. they see blood and they just got for it.

Hopefully this all works out soon!!

 

[JackE]

Yes I have a red brooder light. I will try raising it, but when I did that a few days ago they huddled underneath it so i lowered it again. They are on manna pro organic chick starter, it says minimum protein is 19%. Is 4ft x 4ft too small a space? they just turned 3 weeks yesterday. I can put them outside in the coop, but its 18 degrees out.

Yeah, 4X4 is tight. My brooder is 4X6', and it looked pretty crowded with the 20 chicks I had in there, when they got to about 6wks old. I would get/make a bigger brooder if I was you. Or maybe you could put them in the coop if it's not filled with adult chickens. BUT, if you do that, make sure the heatlamp is VERY SECURELY hung up. You don't want it to come loose and burn everything down. Heatlamps and coops are a bad combination. You have the proper feed. You really don't need to give them any grit now. They'll need that later.