Aggressive Chick

[Wintersun]

I have 10 - 3 week old chicks in a brooder 2 x 4 feet. 2 buff orpingtons, 2 NH reds, 2 barred rocks and 4 Easter Eggers. The EE are the biggest and one of these seems to be a bully. She jumps at the other chicks. Is this normal? I've heard of a pecking order but she seems to be a bully, picking fights for no reason.

I've been trying to get them comfortable with me and several will sit in my lap, although none love being picked up or will they eat the hard boilded egg treat they love from hand in the brooder. This bully chick is very unhappy if I pick her up so I've given up on her. I haven't tried meal worms yet - probably at 4 weeks. I'm hoping they will be more comfortable when we start meal worms because I'm very envious of everyone's stories about chickens that jump/sit in their laps!

 

[Nicole01]

Yes, very normal.

I held my chicks everyday. They really don't start jumping in your lap until they start to lay. That's if you handle daily. On rare occasions a chick will be friendly from the start. I have a light brahma that is about 14 weeks old that has trusted me right from the day I brought her home. The sweetest girl ever!

My first 7 that are a year old all jump up on my lap if I'm sitting on the porch. My new three will most likely do the same, they are even calmer then the first bunch, especially my Faverolle and brahmas. If they were on the skittish side, I held them more often and it paid off. I never put them down until they were calm.

I use to sit them on my lap in front of the TV with a towel under them. I'd have toilet paper handy to immediately pick up their poop. I used feed and wet it as their treats. I held off the oats, sunflower seeds, bugs and greens until they were a little older(8 weeks or so). I give them fruit, HB eggs and some veggies. I do not feed table scraps.

I'm glad I did this. They come running to me whenever I step out the door. They will come out from hiding when I make a kissing sound. I always made kissing noises when I had any sort of food for them. It works amazingly.

Today I had a hawk swoop at them again and I quickly had to get them into their run. By making a kissing noise, they all came out of the woods running and I got them to safety until the hawks moved on. There were 3 on my property this morning.

 

[Wintersun]

Thanks for the advice, Nicole. I wasn't pushing holding for the skittish ones because I didn't want to stress them out and quite frankly, because there are 10 of them and I find it hard to find the time. They're still young so I'll redouble my efforts. I am amazed at how much I love them. I can't have dogs/cats because of allergies so these cuties are my only pets.

 

[chickenzoo]

I always feed my chicks some baby parrot feeding formula. I start out with some dry sprinkled on their food.... Them mix some wet in a shallow bowl as a treat.... Then they learn I'm the good stuff angel and go nuts whenever they see me. I get one chick to eat some off my finger and then all the rest follow...... Then it's a chick feeding frenzy.... Even my older chickens go nuts if they see me with it....