My new chicks

[Frau anita]

My fist chicks since childhood. I got 3 cinnamon queens on the April 14. Now my adventures begin. They like to pick st each other a lot. Is this normal?

 

[Ebony Rose]

Totally normal for them to gently pick at each other, they are sorting out the pecking order. In a chicken's world, you'll see boys pickin' on boys, girls pickin' on girls, and the alpha boys and alpha girls sizing each other up to determine who's gonna 'call the shots', get the best morsels of food, the most coveted roosting spot, etc.
Next visit to your feed store, please pick up some amprolium (generic name for Corid) and a high quality nutritional supplement. Medicate their water with the amprolium about a half-week before you intend to let them explore the ground/grass; this will ensure that cocci (a one celled parasite that lives in/on every square inch of the earth) cannot overwhelm the fragile and developing immune system of your young birds. This product is NOT an antibiotic, it mimic's B-vitamins that the cocci want to suck from the intestinal lining of your chicks. Do not give B-vitamins to your flock while treating them with this medication but do offer it after the full course has been administered.

 

[Chookchicken]

It is completely normal for chicks to peck each other, it’s part of them making the pecking order. My chicks fully tackled each other when I would give them snacks, or they would see something scary and try and run under there mother at the same time. One of my chicks played soccer with her sisters egg whilst she was trying to hatch. They are very resilient little things. Also congratulations on your cute, little, fluff balls

 

[Frau anita]

Totally normal for them to gently pick at each other, they are sorting out the pecking order. In a chicken's world, you'll see boys pickin' on boys, girls pickin' on girls, and the alpha boys and alpha girls sizing each other up to determine who's gonna 'call the shots', get the best morsels of food, the most coveted roosting spot, etc.
Next visit to your feed store, please pick up some amprolium (generic name for Corid) and a high quality nutritional supplement. Medicate their water with the amprolium about a half-week before you intend to let them explore the ground/grass; this will ensure that cocci (a one celled parasite that lives in/on every square inch of the earth) cannot overwhelm the fragile and developing immune system of your young birds. This product is NOT an antibiotic, it mimic's B-vitamins that the cocci want to suck from the intestinal lining of your chicks. Do not give B-vitamins to your flock while treating them with this medication but do offer it after the full course has been administered.

Thank you forthe advice. Someone said to put rocks in the Chick's water tray to keep them from drowning. I washed them but didn't think to sterilize them. Should I put them on the amprolium now. Do they really need the rocks?

 

[Ebony Rose]

Depends how deep your waterer is in regards to the need to add rocks. My young birds drink from a square pyrex cake dish, heavy enough to not tip over, shallow enough to get to the water. Rocks don't need to be sterilized, trust me, chickens will put ~anything~ into their mouths. There are several strains of cocci, and one strain or another blankets the earth, there is not a square inch without them or their eggs. Rains, tend to push this parasite to the surface, making the ingestion of even more of them and their eggs more likely; affecting the young, the old, or the otherwise immune-compromised birds more than the rest of the flock.
In time, your babies' immune systems will toughen up against this opportunistic bad-guy, but while young their first foray into the wild wild world is safer with a bit of prophylactic insurance; hence the reason to start treating them for it about a half-week before they have free reign of your yard.

 

[Frau anita]

Thank you so much for spending the time explaining.
Blessings to you
Anita

 

[Mellowmalt]

I just want to add that it is completely normal for them to peck each other but certainly not because they are working out a pecking order. Not at this age yet
They are pecking at each other to fluff themselves up. You will see chicks doing it to themselves a lot too, they ruffle their feathers and help unfold newly growing feathers but when they are young they can't reach all of their body yet so they rely on each other to fluff each others feathers up for them.