3 week olds with bloody combs and wattles.

[FreedomFarm13]

Yikes! You too? I'd never heard of this before.

I have only heard of it a couple times before. I was appalled when my little pullet did it. She was only a couple weeks old and did the same thing...pecked another chick's head until it died. I think it was kinda accidental tho. It made a mark that bled and the red made her just keep pecking til it was too much. It was pretty gruesome to discover that the next morning, when the day before the chick that died just had a tiny bloody mark on it. I hope that's not what's happening with yours. It's a really sad thing to have to deal with.

 

[FreedomFarm13]

Netting is up! Not before running to Tractor Supply and picking some up. Only to come home and find the exact same netting in our garage when looking for something else, oops. At least its done and the chicks can have the whole run now. Their favorite part is taking tiny little dirt baths. So cute.

I've done this! Once went and bought a whole big roll of hardware cloth just to find one in my shed a few days later. And that stuff isn't cheap. One of those moments.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

The extra space seems to have done the trick. Yesterday morning one chick was still very red. Today they all look to be healing.

If you zoom in you can see two with healing combs.

 

[artbykarenehaley]

Its possible they may have spooked from a predator and run their faces into the hardware cloth. Had that happen with some bearded D'anvers babies. I was over by the brooder, refilling feed dispensers. My sister's cat heard the sound of the chicks and hopped up onto the brooder lid. In doing so, she jumpscared my chicks into charging headlong against the wire mesh divider that kept my standard chicks separate from my bantams. Some of them cut up their faces but one broke it's neck

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

Its possible they may have spooked from a predator and run their faces into the hardware cloth. Had that happen with some bearded D'anvers babies. I was over by the brooder, refilling feed dispensers. My sister's cat heard the sound of the chicks and hopped up onto the brooder lid. In doing so, she jumpscared my chicks into charging headlong against the wire mesh divider that kept my standard chicks separate from my bantams. Some of them cut up their faces but one broke it's neck

Wow, that’s wild! Poor chicks. They must have been so panicked. I’ll have to remember this going forward.

For these chicks I think it was overcrowding. It resolved and they healed up quickly once given more space. They’re now 12 weeks and just started to get scrappy again. A combination of their age and, again, overcrowding. They’re ready for an upgrade again.

Some of my boys in question below. The one in the back (double red bands) is a total bully. I’ve been meaning to pull him out and see how the others respond to his absence. Is there peace in the lands or does another immediately fill the gap?

 

[bhaugh]

I just hatched out a couple of marans chicks and they are Scrappy to each other. I'm not sure I'll keep them as I have raised hundreds of chicks and only had these kind of issues with a group of polish that I ended up culling some and selling off the rest. However I have had this problem with quail chicks. In my opinion this is poor breeding and have found over the years with quail chicks it's not something that goes away but only gets worse. My two older marans never showed this behavior and since I am a temperament freak when it comes to my birds the bad ones go. I may try and pick up a couple more birds to see if that might change the situation as my two are in a huge pen so space is not the issue.

 

[felys]

I raised three golden Cucco Marans
pullets from chicks. They sparred each other all the time starting early on. In their defense the eggs will be HUGE chocolate XXL eggs, don't give up on them yet. My Penciled Plymouth Rock was raised with them. Can you separate them in a see but don't touch pen?

My chicks did that (sparing) when they started to outgrow the brooder and the place got too crowded for them... A few weeks later, it was to establish their hierarchy. We let them spar but as long as they didn't keep at it too long (they would fight, one would run away after a while). It worked out pretty well as we ended up with 10 cockerals and they all stay together pretty peacefully with their hierarchy established.