Chick picking bald tail area of other chick

[Chickie_girl]

We have 8 chicks of mixed breeds and brought them home 2 weeks ago. All are pullets. One is ~6 weeks old, one is ~4 weeks old, and the rest are all two weeks old. The 4 week old started pecking at the tail area of the 6 week old and drew blood causing the others to begin picking on her. We separated the wounded one yesterday night, all day today, and will have her separated all night. We applied blukote and her bleeding has stopped, but it is clear the pecked area is bald where her new feathers are coming in, so think she is probably okay to be put back with the others soon. My question is on reintroduction. Since it’ll only be around two days being separated, do we need to do a formal reintroduction with separate cages, etc, or can we put her right back in with the others? Should we separate the bully who was leading the pecking to shake up the pecking order? We added enrichment toys and are planning to expand the brooder from 2”x4” to something larger. Any advice is welcome! Thank you!

 

[rosemarythyme]

You should be able to put them together without issue, young chicks don't really have a set pecking order the way adults do.

Enlarging the brooder or letting them out (if you have a safe, secure area outside) for some exploration will help. The older birds are likely bored and a bit crowded in their current quarters.