Aggressive 3 week olds

[dak]

Hi I'm a newbie, but my 3 weeks olds are peeking holes in each other. They have plenty of food and water. They have done this to three individuals now. One on his cheek patch that is starting to redden ( I believe he's a roo ), one on both of his shoulders, and one near his vent (this one is the only fast growing broiler and just lies around only getting up to eat ar drink). They are a group of 18 straight run for big r, all different breeds. I'm putting blu-kote on the wound and separating the injured for a awhile, then reintegrating later while giving treats to distract the little pyrahnas. Is there something else I could be/ should be doing??????

 

[AnastasiaY]

Is it just one or two who are aggressive? Or all of them? If it were one or two, i'd separate those from the others.

 

[dak]

By the time time I catch it happening, 6-8 of them have one guy surrounded taking turns getting their flesh treat. Bullies!

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Could be they don't have enough room

 

[dak]

They are in a kiddee pool about 6 feet across, surrounded by an x-pen, in my family room. The coop/ runs are under construction. It is still going below freezing at night here. Is this too small? They also have a perch running across the top of the pool about 10 inches off the shavings they perch on.

 

[dak]

Just did the math that's about 28 sq ft.

 

[fastpat]

Now that you've a few separated out, has the problem spread to other chicks, or has it stopped? I ahve 27 chicks in about 21 square feet, which will become smallish by the time they need to be moved to their coop, fortunately if they begin any crowding behavior I can expand that to about 30 sq. ft.

 

[dak]

The two wounded from today are back with the rest for now. I don't know if they'll find someone new to pick on or go back to the three they've opened up. Fresh wound-kote acts as a bit of a deterent. They don't appreciate a beakful of the stuff.