Isolating Miss Mean Chick is killin' me

[damselfish]

So we have a mean Welsummer chick who pulls feathers from other chicks, to the point of them bleeding. I've posted about her before and all the things we did, isolating her within the brooder, etc. Each time she was reintroduced, she just started over.

In a last ditch effort to make her quit, she's still in the brooder alone and everyone else got to go out to the coop. It's been two and a half days since they left, and she is so lonely!

I just want to pick her up and put her back out with them but I know it may be better to wait a few more days for the rest to bond and get their pecking order sorted out without her.

Can someone be the voice of reason here?

Sigh...I know there's probably no good answer, just wanted to vent. Not looking forward to the culling if we have to go there.

 

[JenMT]

Darn it! I hate that kinda stuff....good luck.

 

[TXmom]

You poor thing...how frustrating. Is there even 1 chick that she gets along with? Maybe you can keep one with her and they can bond? I don't know if that will help...just an idea. Good luck with her

 

[Zahboo]

I have a sebright cockeral about 8 weeks that wants to tear the mess out of 2 of my chicks. I seperate the 5 birds to a point they were content. You may be able to find a buddy for her. I did this. The 2 sebrights and a japanese had their brooder and a second japanese and the silkie the others didn't like were put in a make shift brooder.

 

[BirdMom]

What about those pinless peepers things? There's something that attaches to their beak and keeps them from seeing right in front of them, and it's supposed to keep them from being able to feather pick the others. I know I've seen others on the forums using them, and I've seen them available on some of the hatcheries websites.

Here's a thread about them: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=144815

Hopefully you can find a good solution.

 

[BorderKelpie]

This may be a silly idea, but when my little bantams started picking on each other in the brooder, I hung some parakeet toys (little bells, mirrors and brightly colored plastic thingees), they started picking on those and left each other alone for now. I even have various teething rings, parrot toys, etc hanging in my coop for my grown girls. The shinier, the better they like them. It seems to distract them, plus, it looks cute in the coop when visitors come by.

 

[damselfish]

I will see about the little toys for when I put her back with the rest. Don't know about those peeper things, though!

She didn't really have any buddies...kind of an equal-opportunity brathead, though the Speckled Sussex chicks got the worst of it.

Thanks for the support, there aren't many places to go where you can vent over a sad chicken and actually get answers.