Help my 3 week old chicks are fighting viciously!

[gerry913]

My little chicks are locked up and they are cared for by me and their mother. As far as I can tell from my 5 chicks, 1 is a hen and the rest are all little roos! The males are fighting each other quite ferociously and this behavior in terms of aggressiveness in contrast to their usual short lived spats, so far as I know, started today. What can I do to discourage these fights? They are drawing blood and their faces and combs are scarred and bloody! If they aren't fighting individually then 3 are ganging up on 1! I've never encountered such aggressive behaviour before!

 

[Blondie]

Give them more room. They sound bored and need other things to occupy them selves instead of fighting.

 

[Hens_And_Chicks]

You can put a red or black light on them - they can see but it discourages the picking. Also, you can get blu-cote for the wounds. It's antiseptic and has a blue dye in it - they pick at the red blood.

 

[gerry913]

Thanks for your help guys, I think I will start letting them out for a few hours..

 

[KaLo WoLf]

another thing you might consider is getting rid of some little roos and keep your favorite. But if you arnt willing to do that then i would seperate them or put the red light back on.