bald spots?! Please help!!!! Anyone?

[lily7grace92]

I have 14 chicks at about 3 weeks old. Two days ago I noticed that 3 of the chicks had little spots where the feathers had been pulled. I put medication on them and stuck a red light in the brooder. They also got scrambled egg yolk and everything seemed to be fine when I went to bed. When I woke up the next morning all but 4 of the chicks had large bald spots and some were bleeding. They have a large brooder, are at the right temperature, their water and food get cleaned and refilled three times a day, and I clean out their bedding everyday!! They also get apple cider vinegar in their water twice a week and get scrambled eggs once a week as well. What am I doing wrong??? I checked for bugs and didn't see any on them. Could they be there and i'm just missing them? I have no idea on how to stop them or whats wrong.

The chick in the picture was completely fine last night and this is what it looks like today.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

How large is the brooder? Do you have a picture of that?
Watch to see which one is pecking/pulling the feathers out, that chick may need to go behind a wire barrier for a couple of days, but often time feather pulling is from space and/or boredom issues.

Do you have your coop and/or grow out area ready for them?

 

[lily7grace92]

How large is the brooder? Do you have a picture of that?
Watch to see which one is pecking/pulling the feathers out, that chick may need to go behind a wire barrier for a couple of days, but often time feather pulling is from space and/or boredom issues.

Do you have your coop and/or grow out area ready for them?

The brooder is a 4ft by 2ft stock tank from tractor supply. Everything I have read says that it is big enough for them. Is that too small? It's definitely not just one it seems to be all of them picking on each other. How do I fix boredom issues if it's that?

I don't have it ready yet i'm going to section off a part of my large coop for them as soon as they're acclimated to the weather outside (it's sill 50s here and 30s at night sometimes)

 

[lily7grace92]

Also 3 of the chickens are bantam silkies and they are the only ones that seem unscathed? I would have thought that they would get picked on first so I was watching for that, but could it be that they are doing the majority of the picking? I could separate them into 2 bins?

 

[chickens really]

Possibly the Brooder is too warm and they are bored. They can have pine shavings and stumps to hop on. I'd get them moved out to a bigger pen.

 

[hispoptart]

That seems awfully small for that many chicks. Mine was about that size and I only have 4 chicks in it and they quickly out grew it. I had to move them into their coop at 5 weeks.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Also 3 of the chickens are bantam silkies and they are the only ones that seem unscathed? I would have thought that they would get picked on first so I was watching for that, but could it be that they are doing the majority of the picking? I could separate them into 2 bins?

You may want to separate them into 2 bins and see if that helps.
Have you observed which chicks are doing the picking?

 

[lily7grace92]

Possibly the Brooder is too warm and they are bored. They can have pine shavings and stumps to hop on. I'd get them moved out to a bigger pen.

They do have pine shavings (and make a HUGE mess with them lol). I will put a stump for them to play on in the time being.

 

[lily7grace92]

You may want to separate them into 2 bins and see if that helps.
Have you observed which chicks are doing the picking?

I will get a second bin and hopefully get them moved into the large coop in 2 weeks. Thank you for your help.

 

[Ebony Rose]

The one with perfect plumage is the culprit.