8 Girls for the Bates

[BatesFarm]

Hello! We are new and excited to be here. We have 8 chickens, and have one that keeps pecking at all the other chicks eyes. She purposefully seeks them and pecks at their eyes, even when they are trying to hide their face from her. She is almost non stop, she does sleep, thankfully. Our chicks are a week or two old. Is there any hope that she will stop? I picked up a chicken toy with Mirror that I will try today, in hopes that she stops. However, if returning her is the best idea then that’s what I would like to do before she gets older and I have to something worse then.

 

[janiedoe]

Welcome to BYC. Is your brood large? What type heat source are you using? A few pictures of your setup may help us, help you.

 

[triciayoung]

Welcome. As @janiedoe said, we need to see the brooder set up to help.

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

Welcome to BYC!
As janiedoe and triciayoung said what is the brooder set up?

 

[Nomadicus]

Hello and Welcome to BYC! Glad to have you in this poultry loving community.

 

[TwoCrows]

Hello and welcome to BYC!

Make sure you have enough room in the brooder, 1sq ft per chick. If they are too warm, they get agitated, your temp on the floor under the heat source should be about 85 degrees for this age chick. Heat on one side.... cool and food/water on the other. Give them things to do to prevent boredom. Get a cereal box and cut one side off, lay it down and put chick starter in it, Alfalfa leaves and a sprinkling of parakeet sand in, this will keep them busy and burn energy for hours. Install branches and roost bars for playing and roosting. And when it's warm outside and sunny, get them out into the coop for a feild trip, it's good for them and will wear them out.

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

Hello and welcome to BYC!

Make sure you have enough room in the brooder, 1sq ft per chick. If they are too warm, they get agitated, your temp on the floor under the heat source should be about 85 degrees for this age chick. Give them things to do to prevent boredom. Get a cereal box and cut one side off, lay it down and put chick starter in it, Alfalfa leaves and a sprinkling of parakeet sand in, this will keep them busy and burn energy for hours. Install branches and roost bars for playing and roosting. And when it's warm outside and sunny, get them out into the coop for a feild trip, it's good for them and will wear them out.

View attachment 3768463View attachment 3768464

The cereal box is a good idea!

 

[BatesFarm]

Here is our set up

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

Here is our set up

Your set up seems big enough for the chicks until they are probably three weeks.
It sounds like she is bored though, try a ping pong ball, you said you had a mirror. Also try what TwoCrows said.

 

[DobieLover]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.

I would remove the heat lamp and replace it with a brooder plate.
I would love to see them out of the tub where they can look out and see the world. Do you already have a coop set up for them?
Once you get rid of the light, paint some red dots all over the walls of the brooder so she can go after those instead.
I would also put some perches in there for them to jump up on. And dig up a clump of sod from their future chicken yard and plop that in there, grass, roots, dirt, pebbles, critters and all and let them scratch it to pieces. They need something else to do in there besides fixate on each other.