Help! One chick pecked to the point of bloodied head. Need advice

[Mramln28]

I'm desperate for any advice. Last week we got our first 4 chicks (now 7 weeks old). All has been fine until I found one chick's head totally bloodied yesterday afternoon. I check on them constantly so it couldn't have been happening for very long at this level of aggression. I have separated this chick into a small hutch in our garage but am wondering how long after she's recovered should I attempt to reintroduce her back with the others? I'm very nervous now about getting 2 little 4 week olds we were planning on. Any advice for our poor little girl would be very much appreciated. I also have noticed that one of the other chicks has a splayed leg. She gets around kind of okay but it is obvious it's not right. Anything I can do for this one? Cheers.

 

[TTracy]

Here is some info about the sprayed leg.
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/search?q=spraddle+leg

 

[Mramln28]

Thanks TTracy for the link. I appreciate it. As my chick is 7 weeks I fear it is almost beyond repair. The entire leg points out to the side. She can get around well enough and the other leg looks ok but I'm still worried about her. Incidentally, she seems to be the one that was picking on the other one! I have been implementing a look but can't touch method with them all, keeping the pecked one apart from the others. I might call on a local breeder with the chick with the dodgy leg and see what, if anything, they can recommend. Thanks again.

 

[Pathfinders]

There are a number of reasons why “pecking” may occur, with the most common being a lack of adequate space. Bored chickens, for some weird reason, peck each other. Once they’ve raised blood, it turns into a very bad thing, as it can get to the point where they will mortally injure another bird (the color red encourages pecking for some reason.

The first thing to do if this starts, is to increase the amount of space available for your birds. The smallest must have enough room to run to get away from the bully.

The second thing to do is, make sure they’re not bored. Provide them with interesting things to do. If you can, let them day range or free range (if possible.) We use electric poultry netting to confine our birds, and it works very well for us.

If you must keep them cooped up, provide them with distractions. Some hay to peck apart, a head of lettuce to peck at, some scratch grain tossed in the bedding to find, all can help. But ideally, chickens should have access to grass and the outdoors, with lots of room to roam. A bored chicken is a bad chicken…

 

[Mramln28]

Thanks for the advice. They are free ranging around our backyard so I don't think it's boredom. Since posting this thread I have found help for our little one with the spraddle leg. The other one was a rooster, which explains the behaviour somewhat. As its illegal to have roosters where we live, we've returned that one and all has been resolved. Now have happy chickens!!