help! 4 day old chick really aggressive!

[midd2005]

yeah, funny you should say that about barred rocks being passive. it's one of my barred rocks that is the big meany face. the other barred rocks just stand there and take it. one or two seem to have learned they should angle their head away or just run away. one of my brahmas has learned to fight back, and it's highly effective. i specifically bought both of those breeds because they are supposed to be nice. so much for that.

i've had her in with the rest of the crowd for the last 5 hours or so. she is still eye pecking, but it's maybe less frequent? i really hope i don't find any eyes swollen shut tomorrow morning.

 

[Christie Rhae]

Quote:
Hey! I just noticed you are on Oahu...I am on the Big Island! Where did you get your chicks shipped from? I wonder if ours came from the same hatchery? I got mine from mypetchickens.com. Do you live in a country area on Oahu? I am in the COUNTRY. I am near South Point. About an hour or so from Kona.
I was wondering if the long distance shipping stress could have affected the bully chick. Your shipping would probably have been far as well if you got your chicks from the mainland.

 

[midd2005]

Hey! I just noticed you are on Oahu...I am on the Big Island! Where did you get your chicks shipped from? I wonder if ours came from the same hatchery? I got mine from mypetchickens.com. Do you live in a country area on Oahu? I am in the COUNTRY. I am near South Point. About an hour or so from Kona.
I was wondering if the long distance shipping stress could have affected the bully chick. Your shipping would probably have been far as well if you got your chicks from the mainland.

sadly, im not in the country country no. i'm in kailua, which is nice but definitely not the country.

i too got mine from mypetchicken. they are the only company that i could find that both ships to hawaii and does smaller orders. one is only supposed to have 2 chickens in kailua. oops.

i was very worried about the shipping distance; however, they got here super fast. they were born sometime on monday, and i had them by tuesday after lunch. so i don't know if i can attribute it to that. i don't know what her problem is. my husband is definitely of the screw loose opinion.​

 

[Christie Rhae]

Quote:
My barred rocks were also hatched on Monday from mypetchicken. I'll bet they are related somehow. I did not get mine till Wednesday morning tho, I am sure because of being on an outer island and a remote part of that island no less. It was funny, the mail truck driver called me 8:30 am wednesday to tell me my chicks were on her truck to deliver to my post office. There are some advantages to being is such a small town... everyone knows you are getting chicks delivered! lol Actually I own a salon here and I do the nails of the mail delivery lady. Everyone thinks I have gone chicken crazy. lol!

 

[FJS]

Christie Rae, I saw your post and it reminded me of an experience I had with some chicks last year.

I was given three chicks (all mixed up breeds - I'm an expat living in a country [Lebanon] where chickens are viewed solely as a source of food - so, any notion of breeds is a bit unheard of; although as far as I can tell they were an EE, Buff Orp-x, and Minorca-x). They were about 3-days old when I was given them and they had come from a local market (so, probably the transport was pretty traumatic, but it definitely didn't involve an airplane ride ;-D).

I made every effort to hold each of the chicks for a little bit every day, I gave them all treats, I built what I called the chicky palace to house them all, everything. Nevertheless one of them, the Minorca-x, had issues. He (it turned out to be a rooster) would peck everybody on the head and try to knock them off the roost- at one point I even caught him holding the EE's head down in the water dish! I immediately separated him, putting him in chicky prison - basically a big plastic bin with a towel on the bottom. He spent three days in chicky prison which seemed to chill him out.

At about 6 weeks we moved the three chicks out of the chicky palace and into our coop in the countryside, which at the time had 5 hens and a rooster. Life went on in a very good way until the mean chick was about 8 months old. All of sudden, he went crazy; we could hardly catch him and he wanted to fight everybody - hens and roosters (fortunately, not us!). After he did a good job of bloodying up himself, his contemporaries (not the head rooster), and any hen that couldn't get away, we decided to get him out of there. We heard about another flock with a much larger coop ~40 hens and only one other rooster; the owner of that flock agreed to take the minorca-x (he was admittedly a very good looking roo). Unfortunately, even the larger more interesting surroundings didn't fix the problem...he went on to kill 3 hens before becoming dinner himself.

I know, it's a really tragic story. As a peace-loving-hippy myself, the idea that any creature could be innately and incorrigibly mean is just devastating. Really if I had read your post before having this experience myself, I would have thought that more love and careful attention would solve everything. Now, however, I really do think there is just some gene/chemical imbalance/something fundamental that makes some chickens mean. I also came to believe from this experience that the chicken itself can't be enjoying life too much if it is always looking for something to fight...so maybe culling isn't as cruel as it sounds (not that I could actually do that myself; clearly my solution was to give the mean bird away).

To end this story on a brighter note, the other two chicks have grown up fantastically one gives ~7 big brown eggs per week and the other is the sweetest rooster I have ever met...we even joke that he is actually a prince turned rooster by a wicked witch

 

[Christie Rhae]

Thank you FJS for sharing your story. I guess even with people there are some born with a special kind of evil/mean in their veins. I sure hope this little chick gets her "issues" straightened out. I too am not personally capable of culling but I can't sacrifice any other chicks eyes and the peacefullness of the little flock for one kooky chic.

 

[midd2005]

Good news over here. Meanyface has definitely chilled out. there is still the occasional eye peck but everyones' eyes seem to be fine for now, and i go a long while watching them before she identifies herself.

she has been in with the rest for about 18 hours now, and it's safe to say she is going to stay there. how is your little one doing over on the BI, Christie Rhae?

 

[Christie Rhae]

I kept her in timeout over night and let her out early this morning and no pecking eyeballs! Keeping fingers crossed. Maybe they do just grow out of it.

 

[Mrs. Feathers]

Exellent to hear that she has settled down Christie...
After reading FJS`s post I am really going to keep a watch on my little grey guy, YIKES!
Although things do seem to have settled down here too. I find 4 weeks and 8 weeks they go through a real pecking order thing so will be careful around the 8 week time in case he turns psycho. He might be a small bit on the BBQ

Regarding EE`s, I have Ameracauna X Australorp EE`s and have found them to be very gentle. My 12 week old cockerels are just lovely (mind you I have a very good Australorp Head Roo so maybe he has taught them their manners).
I think the aggression depends on what the cross is....and the existence or not of the sociopath genes

My hubby wanted to name this one Dexter but I told him that could become a self fulfilling event so I am thinking of something kind and gentle....Zen or such like.

 

[Mrs. Feathers]

Quote:

Thanks for sharing your story. I will certainly keep an eye on our little one although the last week has been pretty good. Haven`t experienced this before. When he hopped on our bunny when he was a few days old I should have really wondered. None of the eye gouging that Christie went through thank goodness.
I get you on the peace loving hippy philosophy although now our little granddaughter is around I am way less tolerant...meanies get a one way ticked to freezer camp (handled by DH because I am a peace loving hippy at heart...although I do eat chickens