agressive chicks - help!

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Exactly what Blue said. You see pictures of factory farming with the birds just crammed in there. Most birds, just sitting still, take up a square foot of room! Imagine being packed in a crowd so tight you literally have to bump into your neighbor to scratch yourself....it's horrible.
General rule of thumb for backyard birds is four square feet per bird in the coop, and ten square feet in the run. As WoS said, overcrowding is the number one cause of behavioral issues in birds. They respond by pecking and cannibalism, it's not a pretty picture. Give your birds as much space as you can.

Moonhaus, I agree your birds are WAY too crowded. You need multiple tractors, even 25 birds would be pushing it in an 8x8.

I will make one caveat for what donrae said--the numbers she gives are for laying hens, not for meat birds. Meat birds are generally given less space, and don't have a run. Two square feet per broiler is common. I would give more space for heritage birds, since they are not sedentary like white broilers.

That being said, I find mine grow better with more room. I usually give my broilers and heritage birds (all in the same meat pen) over 5.5 square feet of room, because I can and because they do SO much better with the extra room.

 

[donrae]

Thanks for clarifying that....I used those numbers cause she was talking about non-broilers. Course, I try to give my broilers more room, too.
No meaties for us this season, though, just too many things on our plate and not enough freezer space, anyway. Then again, I just had 8 barnyard mix chicks hatch, so ya gotta figure there's at least 4 roosters in 5 months or so

 

[moonhaus]

thanks guys,

And just for the record, my intention was never to keep them in such a small pen.

I have plans to build a much bigger tractor and transfer them next week. This is just a brooder pen. They just grew out of it faster than my last batch apparently.

Even when I asked the hatchery how much space these birds needed, they said 1 - 1.5 feet. This is clearly not true, and I feel horrible that I've put these chicks in a bad position.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

thanks guys,

And just for the record, my intention was never to keep them in such a small pen.

I have plans to build a much bigger tractor and transfer them next week. This is just a brooder pen. They just grew out of it faster than my last batch apparently.

Even when I asked the hatchery how much space these birds needed, they said 1 - 1.5 feet. This is clearly not true, and I feel horrible that I've put these chicks in a bad position.

It could be that you are right, and the Anconas are a problem. I find that bad behavior spreads through a flock. I received a Lakenvelder cockerel as my free chick from Murray McMurray, and he was a mean little beast. Once he hit four weeks, he pecked the pullets left and right, and pretty soon almost all the flock was joining in and I had blood everywhere. And these were not overcrowded in any way. I finally had to fit every bird with blood on its beak with pinless peepers, and the behavior stopped. And I sold that rotten Lakenvelder ASAP.

If you find that your birds have gotten in the habit of pecking and are still at it even after they get more room, try the peepers. Easy to get on with snap-ring pliers (look in the hardware store, the ones they sell with the peepers are crazy spendy), and they come off just as easily. You can even re-use them. http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/pinless_peepers.html