Baby brahma question

[jaimie44]

Good morning all! I noticed this morning that a couple of my brahmas are starting to get some darker tail feathers in and someones been pecking at them i guess. They have a little dab of blood there. I have brahmas, wyandottes, leghorns, and one turkey together in a large brooder. What should I do? I was thinking I should put a divider in the brooder to seperate the brahmas...TIA!

 

[MotherJean]

A. You must separate any chicks that have injuries. Any with a bloody wound or sore will continue to be picked on.

B. Change your brooder light to a red heat lamp bulb. Chickens can't see the bloody sore in the red light so they're less likely to pick at it and make it worse.

C. Educated guess is that your brooder may be too small for the number of chicks you have. Can you move them to the coop with a brooder light?

Hope you get this helps.

 

[jaimie44]

Quote:
Thank you and yes it helps. I will seperate them. I am using a red light and my brooder measures 2 ft wide by 4 ft long. I thought this would be plenty big enough for 18 chicks that are only 2 weeks old? Ok Im off to figure out something different for the injured chicks...

 

[Brahmamama4]

I had to seperate my dark and light brahmas for a while because of this. The dark brahmas were a few weeks older and thought the little light brahma was a treat. I ended up putting the light brahma in a smaller brooder within the bigger brooder so they can still hear each other, but not peck. Now that a few weeks have gone by I cut some small holes in the smaller brooder so the light brahma can get through, but the dark brahmas cant. That way the light brahma has a safe space to run to in case she is getting picked on. It's working well.

 

[Lorije1]

Quote:
Thank you and yes it helps. I will seperate them. I am using a red light and my brooder measures 2 ft wide by 4 ft long. I thought this would be plenty big enough for 18 chicks that are only 2 weeks old? Ok Im off to figure out something different for the injured chicks...

I think that is too small... (newbie myself but that is pretty close to what I had 9 in and had to seperate them at 2 weeks). SO, you will probably see a difference once you move them. I only have 1 each dark brahma / buff brahma, but none of the other chicks pecked or picked the dark feathers. Good luck!

 

[raimnel]

Quote:

good idea!!

 

[jaimie44]

Quote:

good idea!!

Yep, thats an awesome way of doing it! But since mine are all the same age...I used some wire to create a divider within the brooder so they can still see the other chicks but are safe from the pecking. In another week or so Im going to get an even bigger brooder to accomodate all the growing chicks..they grow so fast!