My babies are fighting

[LaceyM]

I have 10 8-9 week chicks. I believe 3 of them are Leghorns (hatched from TJ fertile eggs) 2 of those are roos. The other 7 are EE and I am not sure which ones are Roos.
my coop is small (still brood size) but there is a door for them to go out in the run. My run is about 13 feet wide and about 30 feet long.
here's my issue. I am noticing at least 4 of the chicks are belly bumping each other and playing "who is taller" they do pick on the other chicks as well. Especially the leghorns roos.
is this normal behavior for such young chicks?
I am new to chickens and I am a first timer.

 

[bigchickenjoe12]

Haha this is normal in young chicks especially males. About last week all my young Roos were doing the same, some even till they were bleeding. They are just setting up the pecking order to see who's tougher

 

[LaceyM]

Thank you.
is it just the roos that do this? If so, it will make it easy for me to figure out the boys from the girls.

 

[bigchickenjoe12]

I'm really not sure... To me most of the time it is the Roos that start up little fights but I have also seen at times hens as well

 

[LaceyM]

Well..... darn! I dont want any roos.... im sure my neighbors will be complaining(I live in the country but noise travels). So, out of respect.... I decided no roos.
These are straight runs so I knew it could be 50/50. So far I noticed 4 are fighting. The others are too busy being chicks.

 

[Teila]

Hi there

In my experience, my baby gals puff up and go all 'ninja-chicken' just as much as the boys. The little ones even try and take on mumma. I do not have any roosters but a couple of my younger hens still run around and chest bump when they get let out for their supervised free range and I agree that it is all part of the pecking order. Sometimes, when I watch them I even think they do it for a bit of fun .. mine quite often 'play' and try and get someone to chase them

 

[bigchickenjoe12]

Do they have larger combs and bigger wattles compared to the others?

 

[LaceyM]

Two of the TJ chicks have very big combs compared to their sister. Hers is half the size and light pink. The other two are almost red.
The EEs, I have no clue which is which. I do notice that one of the lavender ones is always going against the bigger TJ roos.

 

[bigchickenjoe12]

Well for now it may be hard to tell on some so you might just have to wait and see. Never no what you're goin to get thats why I love raising them!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Both sexes of my Black Breasted Reds will usually pile up like a Rugby Scrum @ 14 days and when I find them they are laying in a bloody exhausted pile. Meanwhile the mama hen is as unconcerned with her biddies' bloody heads as a Klingon is with Opera. A little Carbolated Petroleum Jelly smeared on their heads to soften the scabs so that they can once more open their eyes fixes everything until they are maybe 12 - 16 weeks when their chicken blood rises up one more time and makes them do the whole thing again just to see who bosses who.

Your chickens are just being chickens but as they get older they may get too rowdy so be prepared to separate them permanently.