5 Week old pullets attacked (some fatally) by old hens when introduced to flock

[THRBCchickens]

Hi, everyone. My husband and I have been raising chickens since last spring, and have had a great experience. We did not know anything about chickens, but learned a lot from this forum and website. This year we wanted to add new chickens to the flock since we had gotten rid of our roosters and had lost a few hens to some predators. We were left with two hens who will be a year old next month.

We just raised 8 chicks in a brooder in our garage for 4+ weeks. We were pressed for space and the weather was nice, so we introduced them to the flock of two this last Thursday. We did some research, so we expected the older hens to define their leadership in the pecking order, and we saw them chase and peck at the newbies a few times. The next morning all seemed well, but the chicks were still picked on occasionally. We left for the Easter weekend, but we got a call from our neighbor who told us that he had found two of our new chicks dead in the run. We were so sad! We had no idea that the hens would actually peck them to death. We should have done more research, and we feel awful.

Upon our arrival home, we found another chick dead in the run and the other five injured with blood all over. Two of the five look worse off than the rest, but they act fine and free ranged for awhile when we got home. We are concerned because their injuries are all on their behinds...the feathers are gone and it looks like a gaping wound. It is bloody and raw. I don't know if it needs stitches or a veterinarian or if it will heal on it's own? Where should we go from here?

We have placed the remaining chicks back in the garage in their brooder for tonight, but we have not treated their wounds yet.

Again, we feel horrible and wish we would have done more research before introducing them. Please help!

 

[my sunwolf]

Sorry for your loses!

Clean the wounds with water and make sure they don't start pecking at each others' wounds (that happens a lot). I would put BluKote on the wounds (an antiseptic spray that is blue so they don't see the red of the blood and tastes bad to them so they don't keep picking).

I would keep them separated until the babies are 8 weeks old. At 5 weeks, the baby peeping noises are too much and the hens will definitely go after them.

The best way to introduce to the rest of the flock is to fence off a section of your coop and keep the babies in there for a few weeks, where the hens can see them but not attack them. Then at 8 weeks old you can merge the flocks, but make sure that the babies have a place to run and hide if the hens go after them.

Don't worry, mistakes happen all the time with raising livestock! Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[THRBCchickens]

Thank you so much!!! Your reply was SO helpful and encouraging!

We don't have any Blue-Kote as of now, but can probably get some tomorrow. I was looking online and read some things that said it isn't safe to use on egg-layers. Have you ever had this problem?

Is there anything more we can do until we get some Blue-Kote? Should we use Hydrogen Peroxide to clean the wounds?

 

[my sunwolf]

Thank you so much!!! Your reply was SO helpful and encouraging!

We don't have any Blue-Kote as of now, but can probably get some tomorrow. I was looking online and read some things that said it isn't safe to use on egg-layers. Have you ever had this problem?

Is there anything more we can do until we get some Blue-Kote? Should we use Hydrogen Peroxide to clean the wounds?

Never heard that BluKote isn't safe to use on egg layers, that's very interesting, if a little odd.

I just use water and a little bit of gentle soap to clean wounds; others I know use diluted peroxide or iodine. If the wounds are small and puncture-like, I sometimes use neosporin (not the pain relief kind, the simple stuff), but if they are large and shallow I'd stick with previous cleaning examples and leave off any "goop."