Help ASAP 17 day old chicks seriously fighting

[Don Jr]

I have 17 chicks that are 17 days old and when i went to check on them 2 of them were going at it! I spooked them and sent them running around, hoping that the 2 would forget about each other, but within a minute the same 2 found each other and started fighting again! I took the 2 out of their box for a while, when i put them back in, they started again. They are only 17 days old!

 

[boaz]

Hi. How much room do they have in the box or rather how big is the box? Do you have an area that you could let them out to run a bit?

 

[Don Jr]

They are in a 4 by 8 box. Yhey have plenty of room.

 

[gritsar]

If they have plenty of room and they are not drawing blood, let them fight. It's all a part of the pecking order set-up.

 

[Don Jr]

OK but i just thought they were a bit young for that.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Nope, they start working on the pecking order from day one. Sometimes you see it in action, but alot of times there are things going on that escape our notice yet are very important to the chickens. Unless serious harm is being done, again blood, you only prolong the inevitable when you interfere.

 

[RedStarDaddy]

I noticed my birds squabbling at six days old. Nobody was drawing blood but there was definitely a chicken getting pecked and another scampering out of the way. They started the serious fighting at six weeks when I moved them to the chicken house -- but still no blood; just lots of flared hackle, chest-bumping, stink-eye, and pecking at each other. By the time I let them out to range at eight weeks the overwhelming majority of all that was done. They are not all best buds now but they are a cohesive whole. They are a flock. Sure, if one of the lower-ranking birds forgets herself enough to get within range of a higher-ranking bird she gets pecked, but they aren't fighting any more; the low bird scampers away.

RSD