Days Old Chick......a Holy Terror !!! UPDATE!!

[dirtsaver]

Seriously.....this chick is visciously attacking other chicks eyes!

The background...We have had four Speckled Sussex and two Buff Bramaha chicks since March 21st. All are fine and get along with no problems. Yesterday we picked up three days-old Welsummer chicks at Orschlens Farm Supply. The older chicks accepted them just fine. Two of the younger chicks fell right into the mix,eating and sleeping with the original group like they had been there from the start,but one of the newest chicks stayed to its self,didn't seem to get the hang of eating and slept off from the others and stood around a lot kind of wobbly and in a daze.

Tonight we fed her and the other Welsummer chicks some boiled egg to get her some nourishment. A while later she was doing better,eating the starter feed and moving around normally. Then all Hell broke loose! She started visciously pecking at the other chicks eyes. The older chicks and younger ones. She actually drew some blood on one of the Bramahas. We pulled her out for a while but a minute or so after we put her back in she started again,going for the eyes of whatever chick was close. We finally put her in a small box in the brooder To keep her from starting a bloodbath.

Has anyone run into this before? Is this two seperate problems or are they connected? Do you cull now or is there some cure for this problem? One things for sure, we can not leave her with the other chicks as long as she's pecking eyes.


After many times of putting the problem chick in the box by itself it has now settled in and acting normal. No more eye-pecking and just the normal curious pecks. It was a frustrating three days!

Larry

 

[Heckel's Hens]

If she can't be with chicks now, it might be very hard to reintegrate her later. She will be the lone girl coming back into the flock. My chicks playfully pecked at each other, but if it such a disturbance that the chick can NOT be in the same brooder, maybe that is a sign. I am so sorry.

 

[macdoogle]

Once you cul there's no going back. I would give her more time. She is very young from what your post says. As long as the other chicks are safe I would give her another chance. Its possibel that the bigger chicks will let her know it's not ok. Also when you see her pecking you can tap her head and push her away. I hear mother hens teach their chicks how to behave. You are mother hen now.

 

[jeaucamom]

We have an aggressive chick several times over the last few years. We are lucky, if we call our feed store immediately, they will swap it out.. I Never ever deal with a mean chick.. off they go.

 

[Missouri Chicken Chick]

I ran into this situation with chicks that came out of the same incubator. I had a light sussex chick that did the same thing. What made it even worse was that it was slightly larger than the other chicks (RIRs), so it was really doing a number on them.

What I did was put up a piece of heavy duty plastic wrap in the middle of their brooder (which I am ashamed to say is a fish tank, which I know people on here sometimes disagree with). I simply taped it to both sides of the tank which created a barrier, but all the chicks could still see each other. Even with that in place, the single chick would still try to peck at the others at first. On the second day the chick was sleeping on the barrier side, trying to get close to the other chicks, which would also sleep against it. The next few days it didn't seem as intent on pecking at the others, but I waited a total of 3 days before I took the barrier down. Once I did, there was a small amount of what I would call "playful pecking", but nothing like it was doing at first. Eventually everything settled down and it finally integrated with the rest and has done well.

I hope it works out for you.

 

[bucket04]

WOW!

This is EXACTLY what I am going through right now too! I just bought 3 Wellsummer chicks today from a country store an hour away, and when I get them home, one of them, not only keeps trying to peck out the others' eyes, but also bit my lip! I put the trouble maker in with my slightly older chicks to see what would happen, and this little pip squeak started pecking on them too! I started trying to catch her in the act every time and flick her, but then I thought, I have to go to bed sometime!

(Using the idea above me) I made a frame out of carboard, and taped some cling film to it to make a window.... it's now a removable barracade between her and the others. Sheeze, they are just like children huh!?
Oh, another thing I did was raised the lamp.... I think they they may have been overheated..... it did slow down a bit, but didn't stop.

 

[dirtsaver]

Quote:
I forgot to add....we really think it was caused by the fact that the chick was slower to catch on to eating was was behind in development. While in the segregation box overnight she finally started eating like a little pig and in a few hours the change was amazing. Last night I was almost ready to give up on this one but Eva kept trying and giving it another chance and it worked. Just proves you have to keep having faith!.