2 bloody pecking injuries! What is going on??????????

[HickoryHollow]

In one of my brooders, I have a dozen Amberlinks. They are about 3 weeks old, and about 75% feathered. It got up to 80 degrees outside yesterday and seemed a little overly hot in the "nursery" (formerly my work shop). Since it was so warm, I unplugged the heat lamps to both of my brooders. The second brooder also has amberlinks, but about a week younger than the others.

I was gone for a few hours. When I came home, there were 2 of the peeps being chased, and pecked. One of them was bleeding from the top of her tail area. The other was bleeding from her vent.

I quickly removed them both and isolated them. Then I put Neosporin on both. They will be fine, but my biggest question is this: I ALWAYS use a red light in the brooders. Is no light on, the equivalent of a white light? Did this happen because I turned of the lights in the brooders? I don't want to see it happen again.......

 

[chooks4life]

If you don't want to see it happen again it may help to get a breed of chickens not known for cannibalism, or get the same breed from a different hatchery and see if that makes the difference.

Preventing them from acting on it doesn't mean the trait isn't still there, lying dormant and being bred on. It takes generations to breed it out, and culling of the most prone individuals, but if you're buying from a hatchery instead of breeding your own, that can be hard to achieve.

Otherwise, I guess you'd probably want to keep that red light on.

Maybe feed them some more protein too, I guess, though non-cannibals won't cannibalize for lack of protein and ample protein doesn't seem to stop many cannibals from cannibalizing. I personally have a zero tolerance stance towards cannibals and other negative social traits like bullying, so after culling it out for a few generations, I don't have issues with even wounded, bleeding chickens getting cannibalized when among the flock.

Best wishes, anyway.