Finally here! Pecking each other normal?

[chris10sen]

So I called the post office a little after 7 am to check and she said yep they have been talking to her all morning. She said she didn't want to call us too early! Well I was suppose to be at work at 8. My husband is home this morning but I wanted to see them too because these are our first chicks. Needless to say, I was late to work. No one asked me why, I am not sure they would understand if they did ask. My husband just call and said he went to check on them and he said "oh great, one is dead", he touched it and it jumped up and started to walk around. We are newbies, not used to the sleeping chick. All of the chicks seem to be pecking at each other a little bit. Is this normal with being stressed and all? I don't want to be peranoid, again I am a newbie. But I have heard of chicks pecking each other untill they bleed. By the way, I bought the grow gel and they seem uninterested. On Martha Stewart they just ate it up. Go figure!

Lisa

 

[dtchick]

A little pecking is normal but if it gets damaging you might need to separate the offender until it gets better. I had to put one of my baby Barred Rocks in "chick jail" for a short time as she was pecking at the eyes of all my other chicks.

I've never used grow gel and my chicks and chickens are all healthy and strong. I'm sure someone else here can give you advice on that.

 

[chicmom]

Once you get them into the brooder, with wood shavings as bedding, put a few paper towels on top of that, and sprinkle some of their chick food onto it.....it'll give them something to peck at.....I usually do this for the first few days, replacing the paper towels often, as they do poop on them. This kind of teaches them the difference between bedding and food too.

Don't worry, as long as the chicks are warm enough, not in a draft, and you keep them in a relatively clean environment, they will be just fine!