chicks pecking at other chicks

[gentlemanfarmer]

I moved my 5 week old chicks last night into coop this morning I had to move 4 chicks out the others had them pecked raw where the tail feathers come in. What is happing?

 

[Mahlzeit]

You moved them into the coop with the adult chickens?

 

[Mahlzeit]

If that is the case the chicks are certainly too small to go into a coop with full grown chickens and thats why they were pecked. They also still need a different feed than adult chickens. Hope this helps.

 

[gentlemanfarmer]

They are all the same age and were all together all there life. This happened over night since moving them to coop

 

[astatula]

It's called pecking order. They have a new place and they need to establish who get's what space. It's got out of hand, so you did the right thing to separate them for a bit. Use red lights instead of a white light, that reduces the pecking because they can't see as well. Make sure they have enough room to get away from each other and put bactine or coal tar on the spots of the chickens being pecked.

They hate the taste and will peck once and stop. Good luck

 

[Chicken Woman]

IM not sure about bactine as I have not used it but coal tar didn't effect them at all. I even went to the feed store and bought Hot Pic for $8 and it did not faze them.

I personallt think you should remove the culprits and isolte them in a cage for about a week so the others can settle in. Then when you reintroduce the bullies they will be at the bottom of the pecking order and probably won't be so aggressive.

What breed of chickens are these ?

 

[gentlemanfarmer]

Thanks everyone. Love this site and all the kind people with great help. I feel better now. I will just keep them apart for awhile and try to heal them.

 

[JakRat]

Vicks Vapor rub works as well! the smell and taste they dont like but dont put to much so as not to cause resp problems.