- Mar 24, 2012
- 6
- 7
- 62
Hello, we are new to chickens. We live near the Kansas City Metro area. We had 25 brown leghorn pullets. We have had them for about 2.5 weeks. We ordered a straight run of pullets from Orschelens. A friend of mine is taking half of them in a few days, she was unable to get them until now. This morning all of my chickens except 2 had missing feathers and some skin trauma on their backs and one was dead with a hole pecked clear through her back. So sad. We took them outside for the day and totally cleaned their box, which wasn't dirty as far as chickens go. I wanted to get rid of all of the blood and it was splattered here and there. I put neosporin on their skin and they all seemed to get along fine outside. What went wrong? I've never heard of chicks at 3 weeks old doing this to eachother. None were gimpy and they were all about the same size. I have them in a large commercial orange crate in my basement with a heat lamp on one side of the box. The box 4' x 3' and covered in a plastic drop cloth for easy cleaning. I am feeding a ommercial medicated chick starter. They get fresh food and water 2 times per day and I am using pine shavings as bedding. Help, I don't want to loose any more chicks.