Aggressive Barred Rock Chick

[Hawksplash]

So, we just bought six little chicks today. They are three days old. We got two golden-laced Wyandottes, and one Rhode Island Red, one Easter Egger, one Black Austrolorp, and one Barred Rock. They are all pullets (female) and all came from the same seller. I just started to notice that the Barred Rock is particularly aggressive towards the Rhode Island Red. She's been pecking her in the eye and I'm concerned that this might lead to permanent damage to my Red's eyesight. Can it? Or is this normal? I know about pecking orders and such, but I am very worried. Any advice would be great.

 

[chooks4life]

Pecking orders are never reinforced by pecking into the eyeballs.

That's probably protein seeking behavior, aka cannibalism. It's not uncommon for them to peck out one another's eyes. Even chicks can kill at a tender age, in fact they can kill in their first 24 hours of life; some will begin consuming other chicks that are still in the process of hatching.

We bred this into the birds that exhibit it by rearing generation after generation under unnatural circumstances and breeding even those who exhibited seriously malignant social traits, instead of culling; in all cases of cannibalism I've seen and heard of, it was always high-production breeds that are mass farmed doing it, Barred Rocks being a prime example. The ones I dealt with personally are Isabrown and Leghorn derivatives. Obviously, in the more natural environment and lifestyle, a cannibal would not pass on its genes.

Some people still believe all instincts are inherently correct and immutable, i.e. if an animal does it, it must be correct, but that belief flies in the face of the reality, wherein we've bred maternal instinct out of hens, paternal instinct out of roosters, and filial instinct out of chicks, and bred in a whole host of other troubling behaviors like extreme violence, bullying, cannibalism, featherpicking, etc. Some individuals and some strains of some breeds of chickens are best equated to psychopathic inmates better suited to a life of solitary.

Personally, I'd cull that chick, whether that means you rehome it or kill it.

If it has cannibal tendencies, the totally unnatural tendency to view its own kind as food, then it will in all likelihood pass them on to its own offspring, as in all likelihood it inherited them; these aberrant traits have replaced natural ones. It didn't just wake up one day thinking it would eat another chick's eyes, it was always that way, and always will be; normal chickens can starve to death without resorting to cannibalism. It's something we have developed in them until it's a basic behavior in some, not a rare occurrence. It's acting on a long line of ancestral experience that tells it that the eyes of other chickens are nutritious.

It views the other chicks as food, and it's not wrong, really, they can be food, but nobody wants chicks that kill and eat each other, or just maim each other, who grow up into cannibal chickens who need spectacles and debeaking etc to prevent them acting on their tendencies. You can safely bet that if any of your birds ever gets hurt, this one will begin consuming them, and by the looks of it will start on them even before they're hurt.

I culled out all birds with cannibal tendencies etc and within a few short generations, just by breeding those without negative social traits, I had a totally peaceful flock, where injured birds could associate with the others without being harmed, where no bird was bullied; this made things peaceful and smoothly productive for both myself and my flock. But I do have a zero tolerance policy for all negative social behaviors, from cannibalism to bullying to excessive violence, to roosters mistreating hens, to chickens being aggressive to humans. Many people aren't so intolerant of negative traits, they're more willing to keep animals with such tendencies. Each to their own.

If you want them to be the best they can be, and have the best lives they can, and you want the best experience you can have, I would highly recommend you cull out all harmful traits. Breeding out, and training out, does not work anywhere near as quickly and efficiently as removing and not breeding the harmful ones.

Best wishes.

 

[John-1948]

of course it will damage their eyesight !! what if a chicken pecked you in YOUR eye ??

I have two huge Barred Rocks, one Roo and one Hen ....
BOTH have been very aggressive towards my other chickens since little chicks -
so much so that I had to build them a pen just for them alone.
and, let them free-range in different parts of the yard.
they are even somewhat aggressive towards each other.
But since they are the same size, I just let them figure out who is at the top of the pecking order.

speaking only from my own experience, the only way you can contain
their bulliness is to separate them from the other chicks.

 

[Hawksplash]

of course it will damage their eyesight !!   what if a chicken pecked you in YOUR eye ??

I have two huge Barred Rocks, one Roo and one Hen ....
BOTH have been very aggressive towards my other chickens since little chicks -
so much so that I had to build them a pen just for them alone.
and, let them free-range in different parts of the yard.
they are even somewhat aggressive towards each other.
But since they are the same size, I just let them figure out who is at the top of the pecking order.

speaking only from my own experience, the only way you can contain
their bulliness is to separate them from the other chicks.

The only reason my mom and and I bought her was because we looked on here and saw that the barred rocks didn't have negative traits. I will probably have to re-home her, as we do not have enough space to build a separate pen for her. I will monitor the chick and if the behavior continues, she will have to go. This morning, I woke up and they appeared to be doing fine. Thank you both for your suggestions.

 

[John-1948]

Well, this is just what has happened in "my" pen - - - maybe other folks have different enviorenments
that would affect the nature of the Rocks ..... from docile birds to bandits.

I have two RIR, 2 Red Jungle Fowl, 2 Golden Phoenix and about 8 Rhodebars ..... all the same age, 6 months ....
all in the same run - - - the run is 10' wide and about 50' long with a covered roosting/feeding area.

no matter what part of the pen they are in, the Rocks will attack and pull feathers out of the others.
lol more like an ambush because they strike without warning - and do not discriminate with the other birds.

when free ranging by themselves, the rocks will attack each other - not aggressive - just pull some feathers.
then they are back to being best buddies.

don't know what else I can tell you. I do not spend a lot of "one-on-one" time with the chickens to baby them.
good luck.

 

[Hawksplash]

Yeah, I've been monitoring them. My theory is not that the rock is cannibalistic, just that she's top of the pecking order. Because she's settled down now and they seem better. Thank you much for your support

 

[Fred's Hens]

The only reason my mom and and I bought her was because we looked on here and saw that the barred rocks didn't have negative traits. I will probably have to re-home her, as we do not have enough space to build a separate pen for her. I will monitor the chick and if the behavior continues, she will have to go. This morning, I woke up and they appeared to be doing fine. Thank you both for your suggestions.

The problem with reading "Breed Descriptions" in books or online is that those descriptions were written a long time ago and describe the old lines, the heritage birds of long ago. These are still available from preservation minded breeders. Most people today get birds bred from hatchery stock. Hatcheries have been mass producing birds for decades. The results are that the "breeds" they sell neither look like the breed nor act like the breed in far too many cases.

When you mass produce birds using flock breeding, you are no longer selectively breeding in a careful, deliberate way. The males get over aggressive as the more aggressive the male the more his genes dominate the pool. The hatchery breeding programs also discourage many natural traits such as broodiness as well. Egg laying becomes everything as only top layers make the hatcheries profitable. They are in this business to make money.

Economics and mass production for decades results in most of birds simply no longer accurately reflecting the breed they are said to represent. I'm sorry your individual bird may not represent the Barred Rock well at all. As one who loves Barred Rocks personally, this is a sad state of affairs.

 

[Hawksplash]

UPDATE: After observing Chloe (BR) drinking water peacefully with Ruby (RIR) without pecking her at all, I think it's safe to say that my chicks are going to be fine. Thank you all so much for your feedback. I found it very helpful.