I have ten five week old pullets in a homemade brooder that's 5 feet long, 3 feet high, and 3 feet wide. The floor is 1/2 inch hardware cloth, and I've put in two pieces of wood, sized about 2 feet by 6 inches, to give them a place to stand if they want to get off the mesh. They are being fed non-medicated chick starter, and are unvaccinated chicks from Cackle Hatchery. The breeds are: doms, SLW, EE, BA, LB.
I hung up 3 pieces of dry bread and several little shiny silver things from their ceiling to give them something more interesting to peck at, and they don't seem interested.
The temp in the brooder is around 80. I have slowly decreased the heat over the past few weeks and have just this morning decided to shut off the heat lamps in there during the day as the brooder sits in sunshine and heats itself up.
So, that's all the info I can think of help you chicken pros out there know what might be going wrong here. They are being pecked until they're bloody and it's just awful. I'd welcome advice.
I hung up 3 pieces of dry bread and several little shiny silver things from their ceiling to give them something more interesting to peck at, and they don't seem interested.
The temp in the brooder is around 80. I have slowly decreased the heat over the past few weeks and have just this morning decided to shut off the heat lamps in there during the day as the brooder sits in sunshine and heats itself up.
So, that's all the info I can think of help you chicken pros out there know what might be going wrong here. They are being pecked until they're bloody and it's just awful. I'd welcome advice.