All pecked up chick

[clucknpeck]

My poor little black sex link chick has sores on her chest and neck. All the chicks should be around the same age but she appears younger than the rest. I suspect my white leghorn chick did it because she is pretty mean, pecking all the chicks.
anyway, I put her in a separate brooder and I put in the bantam chick with her for a buddy because I figure since its small it wont pick on her. Is there anything else I should do? She appears to be doing well.... But she is peeping an awful lot, like maybe she misses the other chicks. How long will she have to be separated?

 

[Lacy Blues]

I would clean the wounds with warm salt water and a Q-tip. Then, depending on how bad they are, you can just dry her off (a blow dryer on low, keeping your hand in the air flow at all times so you can tell how hot it is) or you can put some antibiotic ointment on them... just a little bit, not enough to mat the fluff.

The leghorn chick may need blinders, if it is her. I'd watch carefully to see who the culprit is. If its done that much damage to one and you removed it, the picker will find another victim.

She'll need to be separated until she heals or you have blinders on the bully.

 

[clucknpeck]

Thank you for your advice!
What are blinders though?

 

[Lacy Blues]

I believe they are called pin-less peepers. They attach to their beak at the nostril and keep them from seeing what is directly in front of them. The can still eat, just not pick their hatch mates.

 

[StevieNay]

We had a mean little buff orp chick that pecked all the tail feathers out of one chick making her bleed, and caused bleeding on three others. First we separated the injured ones for a night until each stopped bleeding. Then we switched to a red brooder lamp. And when the bully still wouldn't stop pecking we let him spend two nights in solitary confinement. He was very unhappy (I gave him a sock to cuddle with), but we never had another pecking problem once we put him back.

Sorry about your chick! It will heal up quickly!

 

[clucknpeck]

The chick looked much better today. It's amazing how fast they heal! I put her and her bantam friend back with the others again and took out my 2 leghorns. Though I am almost certain it was the white leghorn, it could be the brown leghorn because they are both crazy chicks. I was amazed at the difference in the main brooder when I took out the leghorns! It was so much calmer. The 2 leghorns always are trying to jump out and they run around like they are mad, making all the other chicks freak out. I heard leghorns were high strung but I did not expect it to be so obvious.
The leghorns don't like the new brooder, it's considerably smaller. So maybe a few days in the there will teach them to play nice and chill out. If not I will look into blinders and also a red heat light.

 

[Lacy Blues]

They sound pretty wild. I raise Mediterranean breed as well but they're not like that. I wonder if it has to do with hatchery birds. Did you get them from a hatchery? I've read that there is an extreme difference in the temperaments of some breeds when raised by hatcheries. Don't really know why except that perhaps a breeder would cull a bird that was that wild, thereby getting it out of his flock. Temperament is definitely one of the qualities I breed for and though my birds are just a little bit crazy when they hit 4 weeks of age, they calm down nicely the more you work around them by the time they're say 4-5 months old and they can be handled if need be without causing too great of a panic in the flock! lol!

 

[clucknpeck]

Yes they came from a hatchery. It's amazing you can breed for temperment! I never knew that. Before now I thought a chicken was a chicken. They all have such different personalities though. I have a black sex link and a red sex link and they are soooo sweet. My bantam is every chicks buddy My Ameraucanas are by far the most curious, my 2 wyondette are the most independent and my Orpington is really calm. It's amazing to me.