How to stop comb pecking?

[Keeperofmunchkins]

I have four 7 week old chicks that I've recently moved to a segregated outdoor coop and run where my main flock can see them. There are three females and one cockerel. Daytime they are in a run, nighttime I move them into a small wooden hutch inside the chicken coop.

Out if the blue yesterday I found two of the pullets attacking the cockerel in their 'coop' before I let them out for the day. They were chasing him and grabbing onto his comb. He was shrieking and then cowering in the corner when he got away. They kept going after him until I let them out into their day run, and then they seemed to forget about it.

Being the only boy his comb is getting large and red so I figure it is attracting them, and in the close confines of their night area, they can't seem to resist. It still shocked me though because they are so vicious about it. Not just pecking but biting his comb to the point that there are small scratches on his face now.

Is there anything I can put on the boy's comb to deter the girls from going after him? Anything else I can do about this? I've had lots of batches of chicks before and never had this issue.

This is the little cockerel getting bullied:

 

[SurferchickinSB]

Maybe paint his comb black with a little bit of waterproof eyeliner. The top part of his comb looks like a worm. I’m sure that’s why they are attacking it.

 

[aart]

I move them into a small wooden hutch inside the chicken coop.

How big is the hutch, in feet by feet? Crowding can cause crabbiness.

Maybe paint his comb black with a little bit of waterproof eyeliner. The top part of his comb looks like a worm. I’m sure that’s why they are attacking it.

It does!
'Painting' it might work.

I had a cockerel get his wattle bit bad enough to deform it, didn't look bad at the time, bruise and bit of blood, but that wattles never did grow in right. I call him Willie One Wattle.