Hi guys, SO we have a baby chick (little). And we had to get him buy himself. She's seven weeks old. So we've been on the hunt to find her some company, and so we have we got two new chicks (seven weeks old). But she keeps attacking them, i understand the peck game (who wants to be in charge) but they dont hurt her back. (two girl chicks) . I was just woundering , how do you make them get along , she has hurt the tiny new chick badly and im worried. They dont fight back, and she wont leave them alone and if it carrys on we will have to get rid of them HELP ..... THANKS <3
Im having a similar issue. I was told to seperare them but allow them to see eachother. So if they are in a coop/brooder then sperate the area and them with chicken or rabbit wire. I recoment rabbit wire because i used chicken wire and the pullets could still get their head through and peck at my injured chick. After a few weeks you can allow them to be together in the same area while supervised.
Yes, house them side by side so they can see each other but cannot attack each other. Usually splitting the coop with wire works. The place needs to be predator proof and OK as far as the climate. If you are north of the equator it can be pretty warm right now so don’t cook them. After they have been side by side for at least a week, try putting them together. If it doesn’t work out do it again until it does. At least they are the same age, that’s working in your favor. How much room do they have? At seven weeks they can handle practically any temperatures so they don’t have to be in a brooder. The more room you can give them the better. I don’t know what your facilities look like, coop and run, but letting them together on neutral territory can help. If they are in a brooder, put them together in the coop or, even better, coop and run. The main thing though is give them as much room as you can. What you are describing isn’t that unusual. Chickens are social animals and want to be with other chickens, so your lone chick wants to be with the others. But they can also be bullies until they work things out. Usually if they have room the one being pecked runs away so it gets settled, they know who the boss is after a few episodes. But if the weaker cannot run away it normally just scrunches down and tries to protect its head. The attacker does not realize it has won because the weaker did not run away so it keeps attacking, usually trying for the head where it can do the most damage. When you are integrating room to run is very important.
It has a huge coop, so they can run around. We've been keeping them together at night. As we bring them in because the coop needs wire so foxes cant get in and eat the poor things. So the chick what isn't new will stay in one cage and the other two will stay in the other. But they talk to each over all of them i'm just confused how she doesn't get along with them ?
It can take several weeks and sometimes not at all for a chicken to be accepted. Not only do you need to separate them with wire, but once you do allow them to be together you should provide plenty of places for them to hide such as a board up against a corner. You may need a separate feeder and waterer if they won't let her eat. You can also change the pecking order by separating all three of them or the one that's the bully. There are various ways to deal with integration and if you do a search on this site you'll find a lot of good information. They'll tell you to let them figure it out on their own unless it's getting bloody otherwise it'll have to start from the beginning all over again. Mine took over a month before I could safely leave them alone together.
