my little barred rock chicks beat the heck out of my cornish cross chicks

[hengrenades]

Hi all, I am new to BYC and this is my first post. We recently got some barred rocks and some Cornish crosses and at first kept them together. I was worried that the Cornish guys would wind up beating on my little barred rocks because they are already twice their size, but lo and behold, we go in there and the Cornish guys are missing lots of tail feathers, some body feathers. bleeding around the rump and the barred rocks are pecking away at them. This just seemed to come on all of a sudden over a three or four day period. Or is the pecking a response and not the cause, i.e. do chicks go through a molt of sorts? We've separated the breeds to their own spaces now and the Cornish crosses are already looking much improved. These poor guys don't seem to have a mean bone in their large bodies but the barred rocks are rather feisty. Anyone ever seen anything like this? At this writing, they are almost four weeks old. We feed them chick starter, grit, change their water daily, and they seem to love alfalfa.
Thanks for reading.

 

[azygous]

Hi! Welcome to BYC!

You did the best thing by separating the two groups. Different breeds do have different temperaments, and that may be what was behind the smaller Bar-rocks abusing the Cornish chicks. Bared-rocks do have a reputation for being feisty and aggressive.

I have a similar situation in my flock. My little gang of thugs are four Speckled Sussex. They're all adult hens now, but even when they were still pullets, when I introduced them to the flock, they refused to take any abuse from any of the older hens, and now they're holy terrors. One of them especially beats up one of my Brahmas every single night, and the others will bite, chase, and bully for no good reason, seemingly just because it's entertaining to them.

You don't indicate how many of each you have. Numbers do play an important role in how much self confidence chicks have. If there are more BRs than Cornish, that increases the probability of aggression in the group with larger numbers.

No, there isn't any molt at that age that would account for balding rumps.

 

[debp]

I have a new chicken "crisis" - at least for me it is a mini crisis. I have my first chicks - 5 weeks old. I put the 10 New Hampshires (4 of them cockerels) and 5 brown leghorn pullets in the coop 1 week ago. They were doing great. No bullying - got along well.
Some of the 8 Barred Rocks (same mail order, same age) were not yet feathered, so I kept them all back in the brooder for a week. I just took them to the coop today. The chicks in the coop would not let the BRs near food or water. The BR spent most of the day cowering behind a large box in the coop. If they came to a feeder or just out in the open, the NH roos (and the pullets to a lesser extent) tore into them to the point the BR were terrified to leave their corner. No blood yet.

For tonight I gathered the 4 NH roosters and put THEM in the brooder. The NH and Leghorn pullets still kept the BR cowering, but not quite so badly. I coaxed them all into the sleeping box (with a heat plate) in the coop, and the BR and NH/Leghorns went to separate corners of the box. My BR were so calm in the brooder, but they were stressed and crowded into one corner of the box. But, by dark,, all is quiet out there.

I am wondering if it will help to keep the NH roos in the brooder a few days, to see if the BR can integrate with just the pullets (the BR includes roosters - in fact, I think mostly roosters). I am wondering if the NH roos will be less confident and aggressive when they are put back in the coop. Or, I could take all the BR back to the brooder. Would they have a better chance when they are older, or would it just be harder. They all (all 23) got along fine until I separated them for a week.

I know I should partition off a corner of the coop for this and future uses, but, I am not good at building a wall even of chicken wire, and these leghorns fly high already. I have to wait until my husband has time. Any ideas - keep the NH roos out? Put BR back in brooder?

UPDATE: The NH and leghorn pullets seem to have accepted the Barred Rocks overnight. Relationships were normal this morning. Now I just have to figure out how/whether I can reintroduce the 4 NH roos. I guess its all trial and error - if I had this situation again, I would just put them all out together and hope that the downy ones could find a warm spot under the heat plate at night. One week apart was enough to make them strangers.

 

[hengrenades]

Hi there Azygous
Thanks for responding! I have twenty five of each breed with one rooster in each group, although which chick is actually the rooster is not apparent yet.

 

[azygous]

Deb, you've already discovered on your own everything I was prepared to say.

But to go over the important points, when you separate chicks, even for a short time, they need to be re-integrated. Usually it will be no more eventful than some chicks coming up to the re-introduced ones and giving them a sound peck on the heads.

If there appears to be a prolonged conflict between the groups, you need to create a safe place for the victims until all have re-acquainted.

Even though you aren't real handy with tools and building materials, anyone can get a couple pieces of chicken wire and create a "lean-to" type enclosure. It doesn't have to look pretty, and it's only temporary.

I understood I would have this problem from time to time, and even occasionally two adults will have intense differences and need to be separated for a spell. So I built permanent partitions in my run, with gates I can shut at will if there's a problem. I can't emphasize enough how useful this has been.

 

[debp]

Thank you for the advice. I really learned the value of the 2 room idea with this event. I've read that it is handy, but I think it is essential. I will figure out some way to create a separate space for new, sick, etc. chickens.