- Mar 17, 2007
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My five chicks will be ten weeks old on Tuesday.
We have four boys and one girl (what rotten luck...) but none of the boys are crowing yet and they have all gotten along famously until now. In the past they will run up to each other and bob up and down, maybe have a peck...but that was it, there has never been any real nasty behaviour or fighting.
Today i let them out to free-range for a while as usual, and about half an hour after i'd let them out i heard all this squawking. So i ran up to find Paprika (one of the chicks) pecking and attacking Midget! I got them apart and lifted Midget up and he has several cuts on his face that were bleeding...Pappy then went after his sister, and then another brother!
Why has he just 'turned' like this?? Is it normal - and does that mean whenever they are together now they will fight?
Midget seems to be in shock. He has eaten some food and had a little to drink, but the rest of the time he has been sleeping on my lap. He also seems to be keeping one eye closed most of the time, although he can open it and see out of it...I'm hoping he just got pecked in the eye and it's nothing more serious. Is there anything i can do for him?
The other three boys aren't fighting with each other...it's just Pappy. I'm keeping him seperated, but they're all so miserbale and are sleeping side by side seperated by chicken wire...if i put them together he'll hurt them again, won't he? I knew the time would come when the boys would need seperating but i was hoping for another few weeks at least...they aren't even crowing yet! Last year we had BO chicks living with each other until they were 16 weeks old, why has Pappy suddenly started attacking his siblings?
We have four boys and one girl (what rotten luck...) but none of the boys are crowing yet and they have all gotten along famously until now. In the past they will run up to each other and bob up and down, maybe have a peck...but that was it, there has never been any real nasty behaviour or fighting.
Today i let them out to free-range for a while as usual, and about half an hour after i'd let them out i heard all this squawking. So i ran up to find Paprika (one of the chicks) pecking and attacking Midget! I got them apart and lifted Midget up and he has several cuts on his face that were bleeding...Pappy then went after his sister, and then another brother!
Why has he just 'turned' like this?? Is it normal - and does that mean whenever they are together now they will fight?
Midget seems to be in shock. He has eaten some food and had a little to drink, but the rest of the time he has been sleeping on my lap. He also seems to be keeping one eye closed most of the time, although he can open it and see out of it...I'm hoping he just got pecked in the eye and it's nothing more serious. Is there anything i can do for him?
The other three boys aren't fighting with each other...it's just Pappy. I'm keeping him seperated, but they're all so miserbale and are sleeping side by side seperated by chicken wire...if i put them together he'll hurt them again, won't he? I knew the time would come when the boys would need seperating but i was hoping for another few weeks at least...they aren't even crowing yet! Last year we had BO chicks living with each other until they were 16 weeks old, why has Pappy suddenly started attacking his siblings?
