How long to separate mean chick?

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Sarah1up

In the Brooder
Apr 30, 2020
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A little over simplified title there, but we have a variety of 19 chicks, all the same age and about a week old (should be all pullets). One of my Rhode Island reds is fixated on pecking the other chicks beaks. This comes across to me as more a weird fixation rather than aggression but I’m no chicken whisperer. She just runs from chicken to chicken and pecks their beak (started to draw blood on one). This isn’t because one got too close to her... she also doesn’t walk around and forage much when she is with the other chicks. I have her split into the side of our brooder separated by hardware cloth where she is able to be right next to the other chicks. She was trying the same behavior but was hitting the wire and I have already seen a huge reduction in the behavior. She has fairly normal behavior now, preening, a little foraging, and mostly napping. I don’t want to put her back with them until she has time to break the habit, but I don’t want to keep her away longer than needed. Any ideas for when to reintroduce her? Will “testing” out if she’s good prolong the issue effectively making me have to start over each time?
Just want to add that our brooder is about 2.5 feet by 9 feet with two water and food spots so I feel they have plenty of space and she isn’t driven by competition. All of the other chicks are displaying normal behavior.
 
RIRs are known to often be the bully of a mixed flock. So you may never break the habit completely. You just have to keep separating that bird.
It is often better to move them to where none can see each other. The idea behind the separation is to make the bully a new introduction to the flock. As long as they can see each other, it may not help.
 
Thanks, if this doesn’t work I may try to visually block it off, I was just hesitant about that since they are so little.
 
I have only experienced this one time. Out of seven chicks of different breeds, my plymouth rock chick was wild. She'd drag other chicks around by their toes and peck them. After a week she mellowed out and as an adult she's the sweetest hen in my entire flock. I realize not all chicks may have the same outcome, but I wanted to let you know it is possible. I tried to provide extra stimulation for them such as drawing dots on the side of their enclosure, taking them out on sunny days, providing a roost for them, throwing in bits of grass, etc. At the time I used a brooding light but for my next batch I am switching to one of those mother hen heating plates to see if that helps calm their disposition.
 
Thanks for the tips! We already put some stickers on the walls for them (my kids loved that!) And I am picking up some sticks today for roosts. We are giving her a good try before we do anything drastic. I was also wanting the heat plates as I’ve heard suck good things about them but we moved just this month and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get chicks at all. Now it’s a little too late in the season to find them in stock.
 
Sarah1up said:
Thanks for the tips! We already put some stickers on the walls for them (my kids loved that!) And I am picking up some sticks today for roosts. We are giving her a good try before we do anything drastic. I was also wanting the heat plates as I’ve heard suck good things about them but we moved just this month and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get chicks at all. Now it’s a little too late in the season to find them in stock.
Click to expand...
I had to pay $70 for one on Amazon because TCS was out of their $40 so I feel your pain there. I wouldn't have done it except I've seen a world of difference in the chicks raised by a heat lamp vs chicks raised by a mama hen.
 
humblehillsfarm said:
I have only experienced this one time. Out of seven chicks of different breeds, my plymouth rock chick was wild. She'd drag other chicks around by their toes and peck them. After a week she mellowed out and as an adult she's the sweetest hen in my entire flock. I realize not all chicks may have the same outcome, but I wanted to let you know it is possible. I tried to provide extra stimulation for them such as drawing dots on the side of their enclosure, taking them out on sunny days, providing a roost for them, throwing in bits of grass, etc. At the time I used a brooding light but for my next batch I am switching to one of those mother hen heating plates to see if that helps calm their disposition.
Click to expand...
I had a similar experience with my Buff Orpington, when she was a baby she ruthlessly bullied our little Buff Brahma Bantam so we separated the bantams as a whole to keep them safe. They were reintroduced later on and became very good friends ❤️
 

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