Mean little bully chick

[ZaneyMama]

I have 8 13-day old chicks. One of the Plymouth Barred Rocks runs over and pecks aggressively at me or my husband when we open the door to the brooder (a dog crate). I've also seen her (or him?) run around and torment the other chicks. She pesters them and pecks at them and takes food from them.

Is this normal behavior?

Sarah
Boulder, CO

 

[MissAnnieFrannie]

I have a little bully as well, but I just put her (what I am thinking is a him sue to appearance as well as behavior) in a little thing called chick jail....which is a smaller sectioned off part of my brooder made of cardboard. A bit of time seperated from the others in jail seemed to tone things down a bit...I know it sounds weird, but I read it on here somewhere, and it worked, so there ya go!

Also, if you are using white lights, you could change to a red one. I ahve heard it is more soothing and makes the chicks a bit less aggressive...

 

[bel]

I've dealt with this with mice, but its the same for chickens from what I read. Always seperate the bully not the bullied when you have a social grouping animals, when hes gone the remaining animals build a new pecking order which does not include the missing bully, and on his return the bully is no longer the dominant animal and instead is a newbie at the bottom of the pecking order.
If you were to remove the bullied it drops their status worse and it was low to start with so thats no good..