Evil baby chick.. pecking.. attempted murderer. help please!

[Feliciah4christ]

My husband brought home 7 chicks from the local co-op. 2 turken naked necks, 2 silver laced wyandotte, 2 partridge plymouth rocks and 1 Deleware. One of the partridge rock chicks is crazy. Non-stop trying to peck the other chicks. I separated her immediately in the brooder by hardware cloth and she will still try to peck them through it. I have a good size brooder and monitor the temperature and they have a warm and cooler side. They are also under a red bulb lamp. They have plenty of food and water. She had pecked their beaks and eyes to the point that several were bleeding. After a week they are healed up and no sign of blood. I tried to introduce them again and instantly she went for pecking so i put her in the other side of the hardware cloth. I am not sure what else to do. Will she outgrow this? They are all so calm except for her. I have never had this happen before. She really is crazy lol. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[song of joy]

This sounds like extremely mal-adaptive behavior. I would be inclined to cull this chick, as it may continue to be aggressive and cause stress within the flock. A stressed flock is more vulnerable to diseases and tends to lay fewer eggs.

 

[azygous]

Almost all cases of an aggressive chick resolve themselves in just a few days. There could be any number of reasons why a chick misbehaves like this. I'm inclined to think stress affecting a chick who is normally high strung manifests itself in this manner.

You're doing the right thing. Keep the chick separated but within sight. With a screen partition, it can still have body contact with the others and that will help calm it down in time.

Meanwhile, give it something to peck at. Sooner or later you'll want to get a flock scratch block for your chickens. It's great entertainment. But if you saw a small hunk off the big block, give it to this chick, it will serve as a focus of its attention and give it something to peck at other than other chicks. Hang an apple slice or carrot and it might find those interesting as well. Shiny marbles sometimes help.

I repeat, this usually resolves in a few days of quiet and calm and settling in.

 

[16 paws]

I agree with agyzous, I would provide the aggressive chick with lots of things to entertain/distract it for a while on the other side of the partition. As long as they can still see one another they will still be part of the flock. Take it slow and I think it will resolve itself.
Marie