Aggressive Baby Chick

[LambsBYChicks]

Hello - My little flock of two Barred Rocks, two Buff Orps, and one EE are all about 3 weeks old now. It almost looks like all of their fuzzy little baby fuzz is now more feather like and they have cute little tails growing.

I had them in a large plastic bin as a brooder. They seemed to be constantly quarreling so I thought maybe a larger brooder would help, so I my husband made one. It's about two feet wide by five feet long. It has a roosting bar that runs the length of it, we have a stick they roost on, they have a treat feeder, little cat toys and a mirroring in their brooder. (Pics attached)

I am starting to think it's my EE that is the aggressive one. None of them are getting hurt, yet, just constantly disrupting the peace. The EE will even bite me. I will let them eat out of my hand and all the others do fine, but the EE has started to bite me. I kind of don't know what to do with her and was hoping someone had suggestions. I read to "peck" them on their back if you see them going after another chick, tried that. I was thinking about separating her from the others by a plastic sheet between them in their existing brooder? Any help or suggestions would be great. I don't want me chickens. I have two little toddlers and can't risk having a hen that bites for no reason. The Barred Rocks are doing the best. They still don't like to be held, but eat out of my hand and will even hop on my hand/arm. The Orps aren't too far behind them.

 

[azygous]

The poke on the back disciplinary method works in most cases, but you need to spend some time with the chicks, say, twenty minutes at a stretch. This way you will be able to identify the culprit and do some quality discipline.

While observing your chicks at play, if you can watch the body language of the mean chick and anticipate when it's about to go after another chick, the "poke" will be that much more effective. You probably won't need to do this for more than two days to achieve success.

Here's the article I wrote on the subject with other tips on how to avoid boredom in the brooder. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/aggressive-baby-chicks-and-how-to-stop-the-behavior.72029/