dead chicks , pecking please help

[australorp]

Hi, I bought 35 chicks from ideal. 10 delawares, 15 red sex links, 10 easter eggers, and 5 barred rocks. When they were only a week old, one delaware and one sexlink got her butt feathers picked bad. I seperated and used rooster booster, every day. I stopped, one week later I had 4 red sex links in icu, they got pecked bad. Then I lost two sex links same reason. The only ones that seem to get picked on are the sex links, not counting the first delaware. I have seperated the sex links, they seem to grow up slower then the rest. more fuzz on them. I have read that they are very docile, and I see they are slow growers. I am desperate, can someone help me?

Are the sex links so docile? is it their slow growth? I gave them room, more then the one square foot, they actually have a 9 by 13 pen. protein everything i have done before, but this time my chicken have turned out to be a nightmare. Please help.

Andy

 

[equine chick]

When I had the red sexlinks they were my favorite chicken, so calm and very sweet. Keep the peckers to themselves til they get a bit older. Did you have roos that could be the peckers?

 

[teach1rusl]

Yes...I would watch them carefully and find out who is doing all of the pecking. A little bit of pecking is acceptable...peck...get away from me...done. But pecking till death obviously is not. Either pull out your more timid chicks or pull out your aggressive ones and give them their own area. If possible, use wire to just section off your current brooder, so that they're still exposed to one another (since they'll eventually be together anyway). Any chicks that have obvious wounds will have to be totally separated until healed, since even mild mannered chickens/chicks will peck at bright red wounds or dark scabs... Good luck. Sorry this has gone so badly for you this time...

ETA: By your description I'm guessing they're about 2-3 weeks old now?? Is there overcrowding (which can cause pecking). That's a LOT of chicks, so hopefully they have ample space...at least a sq. ft. each or so. Also, are there plenty of feeders about, so that the lessers have a place to eat when the more aggressive want that food dish? How's the temp? I'm just trying to figure out what may be causing this severe of a pecking issue...

 

[australorp]

Teach yes the pen is 9 by 13, or 8 by 13 feet. I thought this was enough room? I only seem to be losing my little red girls,and no i dont have any roosters, or older chicks.

 

[klf73]

what about the light? maybe try switching to a red one? I had a bulb blow and had to put a regular white one in until I got to the store, they started pecking each other so I had to go to the store sonner than I planned. They stopped and that was the only time I had pecking problems.....

 

[teach1rusl]

Quote:
Yes, many swear by the red bulbs rather than the white ones. I only had a red one, so have no comparison myself. But the red is supposed to be more soothing, especially at night. And your brooder/coop is plenty roomy. If you keep a thermometer out there, what are your temp. readings. On the plus side, you have plenty of space to stretch some wire across to make two separate areas for them (although you'd have to get another heat lamp for that side).

 

[australorp]

My two bulbs are red. I cant seem to find the answer.

 

[australorp]

after 4 weeks i stopped worrying about temp. I live in florida, they still have their red light if the want it, most of the time they stay away from it

 

[australorp]

So far I am trying everything you guys are telling me to try. I am goeing to try more feeders, but right now i have four.
One weird question, because I have never had easter eggers, can they be aggressive ? They seem to grow faster then the rest of my chicks.

 

[ericsplls]

I think you should do what others suggested seperating them. If the picking keeps going on move chicks around until you figure out who the guilty one is.