Day old battle ground! Help!

[pbjmaker]

I am the one that had a sole survivor from an incubation who is now only 1.5 days old. My husband got 9 other chicks today that are also day olds. We put them all in the same box and now the battle is on. The "lone" chick is attacking all the others. Is this normal? How do I get them to get along? Will he hurt them?

Thanks

 

[The Chicken Lady]

Here's where the term "pecking order" comes into play. Chickens have a very strict social structure, even when they're young. Every time a new bird (or birds) is introduced to your flock, you can count on this to happen. They are trying to decide who is the strongest bird in the flock, and the lone chicken is making a really good case for his authority. They will battle it out for a week or so until they decide who fits where. There really isn't anything you can do because this is a natural behavior.

If you notice that someone is injured, though, clean and take care of the wound. Chickens are more prone to pick at one another's injuries.

 

[pbjmaker]

I kind of figured that but wasn't sure if it happened with day old birds. We did make them a new brooder box just now and that seemed to help since it is "neutral" ground. The new babies seem to already follow Mr. Bossy around for the most part. There are a couple of them left that still try to gang up. I think the neutral box helped. It is amazing to me what they figure out in one day.
Thanks for the reply!

 

[PoultryPedia]

It can sometimes be helpful to let chicks or adult chickens "eye each other" a while before actually letting them fully interact. Putting in a glass, screen or plexiglass divider for a few hours or days can cut down on initial physical tousling, because they get used to seeing each other & also establish some of the pecking order by posturing and bluffing through the divider even though they can't really access each other.
I'm very glad you're having 1 chick picking on a group and not the other way around!

 

[PoultryPedia]

BTW--The new box sounds like it was a very good idea. I know it is helpful to introduce horses to each other in a setting where the less confident ones have a chance to become familiar with surroundings before more dominant horses are added (and it can be even better if the more dominant horses aren't familiar with the area previously).