Chicks pecking a polish

[shadowbanned]

Hi, I have 4 polish in with about 12 other non-crested breeds. They are all about a month old. The polish have their crest feathers coming in. My son pointed out that one was bleeding a little. I don't see any real damage, just a little tiny dot of blood. I'm assuming the non-crested was curious about what the heck is on that guy's head and pecked it. I had him put it back and watch it. Sure enough, the others wanted to peck that tiny spot of blood on its head. I ended up taking it and another polish out and put them together away from the others. How long should I keep them separate and is there a way I should reintroduce them? Is there a product I can use to deter the other birds? I think it was a target because their feathers are just coming in and the scalp looks a little red in between all the little white feather nubs. I'm not planning to keep the polish with the other breeds as adults. They will eventually be housed separately.

 

[sourland]

Have a Plan 'B' in mind. Polish in mixed flocks frequently have their crests removed and may even end up scalped.

 

[Eggcessive]

I had 2 polish chicks with my original chicks. Around 3 months old, they started to have their head feathers pulled out by the others. I used BluKote to spray and color the red areas purple. Throughout their lives, about once every 6 months, one would get pecked. As long as I caught it early the BluKote worked to prevent that from becoming worse. One eventually got scalped by a young cockerel, and I had to place her inside dog crate with food and water, and treated it with antibiotic ointment. Within a few days a scab formed and the BluKote was effective again. Unfortunately, both hens were eventually killed by predators (a hawk and a raccoon) a year apart.

 

[shadowbanned]

I had 2 polish chicks with my original chicks. Around 3 months old, they started to have their head feathers pulled out by the others. I used BluKote to spray and color the red areas purple. Throughout their lives, about once every 6 months, one would get pecked. As long as I caught it early the BluKote worked to prevent that from becoming worse. One eventually got scalped by a young cockerel, and I had to place her inside dog crate with food and water, and treated it with antibiotic ointment. Within a few days a scab formed and the BluKote was effective again. Unfortunately, both hens were eventually killed by predators (a hawk and a raccoon) a year apart.

Thanks for that tip. I put them back in and fed everyone fresh food and I'm keeping an eye on them. So far so good. I knew I would eventually need to separate them, I just figured a month is still pretty young. Time to build more coops