HELP! Cannibalistic Chicks!!

[CrookedFurrows]

I have 24 month old chickens (Rhode Island Red, Amerucuana, Speckeled Sussex, and Wyandotte) and (now) 11 ducks of the same age. I used to keep them together in the same pen but three days ago when I came home all five of my white pekins were bloodied in the wing area and one of them actully had its innerds hanging out of its abdominal cavity I immediatly seperated the ducks from the chickens and the worst duck was sewn up, yesterday it died. After seperating the ducks and chickens I let the chickens have free range during the day yesterday when i came home the chickens had turned on each other and were picking holes in each others backsides I let them out again (when i'm away they're in) and when it was time to put them back in i covered the pen with a tarp to block light in a vain attempt to stop the picking. Today when I came home it was worse not by much but one of our prettist amerucuanas was deeply picked on her back as well as another amerucuana who had been picked so far her vertabre is visable. Those are the worst two none of my swedish blue ducks were touched excepting the silver one the chickens seem to be targeting the lighter colored birds. There is always fresh water and food (mainly crumbles but recently I had started mixing their feed with pelleted sheep feed in order to make it last a bit longer because my father keeps forgeting to get more) there being so many I can't seem to find the main culprits but it seems the Rhode Islands and the Speckeled Sussexs are doing the most picking on the already afflicted birds. The ducks are all fine now that they have been seperated from the chickens it seems that only chickes did it. Help please?!

 

[CMV]

Are they too crowded?

 

[CrookedFurrows]

The pen in which they spend the night in is certainly not large enough for them to live in but they get free range during the day and i don't think they pick at night.

 

[Little Tweets]

It may be an overcrowding issue.

You stated that the RIR and SS are doing the worst picking. Try separating them from all the others.

 

[cafarmgirl]

Unfortunately once they have learned this behavior it can be very hard to get it stopped without removing the offenders, and you may have quite a few offenders at this point.

About all you can try is to get them in as large a space as possible, even at night so they don't start in on each other before they get out in the morning, and try to get the worst culprit's out of there. And give them plenty of high protein food. I don't know what the protein content in sheep feed is so you might want to feed them just the chick crumbles.

 

[schellie69]

First they need the chick feed with the higher protein 2nd they are in to small of space 3. they are board hang some kind of bird suet up or veggies that they can peck at. Get the higher protein food. 3 enlarge their pen. I would also take out any chicks that have blood showing and put them in a different area. The others will not stop pecking at the blood. I would make sure to clean the wounds and put an antibiotic ointment on with out pain relief.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Also the ones that are wounded will keep getting pecked at because the other chickens will be drawn to it, so you'll need to separate them from the rest of the flock till healed, if you have Blue-kote use it it will help with healing and also disguise the wounds. I'd say over crowding and lack of the right kind of nourishment could have something to do with it.

 

[CMV]

Quote:
Agree. I don't know off hand what is in sheep feed, but I would not recommend mixing any other feed with chicken feed to stretch it further. Each feed is specially formulated for the animal it is made for. You are probably missing some vital ingredients in this mix.

 

[CrookedFurrows]

I seperated the two worst picked chickens from the rest but they are still together I'm going to try to seperate the RIR and SS chicks from the Amerucuanas and Wyandottes tomorrow but I canonly seperate their pens if they are all to be free range then they would all have to be together come day I don't have a run for chickens seeing as my place was designed with sheep in mind. Can they be seperated only at night until I am able to determine the offenders? and the injured chickens can they be out side with the others or will the continue to pick despite the room? I dressed the wounds with what I could find iodine (normaly used for lamb navels) is that alright?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Iodine is good, but if you can get Blue- kote it will also disguise the wound because it is the color purple. the only way to know if your plan works is to try it and see, as for the injured ones being with the rest, I would give them a couple of days to heal before putting them back in with the flock. I hope it works. please keep us updated.