One chick under assault

[azygous]

The discipline doesn't involve long periods of your focused attention. Rather, short periods of five minute intervals, say three times a day, will suffice.

It's also not necessary to handle the chicks when you do this. Treat it as a game. You will be watching the actions of the target chick, anticipating his intentions to go after a victim. When he does this, you go in with your finger to deliver a quick "peck" on his back.

Wait and watch. The chick will likely repeat the behavior immediately. Give it another peck when he does it, even before he does it is even more effective when you see him focusing on a mate.

You may have the opportunity for one more disciplinary poke before he gives up his quest for the time being to bully. You may then leave and attend to your other tasks. You may have had to spend all of three minutes with this project. When you find yourself in the vicinity of the brooder a few hours later, spend another three minutes observing and administering discipline.

I've never had to spend more than two days at this. If the discipline is going to take, it will take in a very short length of time.

 

[SimplyLivinthatFarmLife]

Good luck to you...can't wait to hear how it all turns out.

 

[llombardo]

Be careful with that blue kote. I just treated one of my ducks. She is purple, I'm purple, the walls are purple...

 

[azygous]

Be careful with that blue kote. I just treated one of my ducks. She is purple, I'm purple, the walls are purple...

The stuff should come with a warning on the label, all right. If you have a cause to put it on a comb, you should do it outdoors and wear a rain coat because your chicken will shake its head, flinging the staining purple liquid in 360 degree directions.

I fill a smaller bottle with Blu-kote and use a Q-tip to apply to the smallest area possible. Then stand back.

 

[llombardo]

The stuff should come with a warning on the label, all right. If you have a cause to put it on a comb, you should do it outdoors and wear a rain coat because your chicken will shake its head, flinging the staining purple liquid in 360 degree directions.

I fill a smaller bottle with Blu-kote and use a Q-tip to apply to the smallest area possible. Then stand back.

Lesson learned.

 

[IllinoisGuy]

Be careful with that blue kote. I just treated one of my ducks. She is purple, I'm purple, the walls are purple...

Yeah, I'm already initiated. After using the Pick No More, my hands were purple for 2 days and smelled like grape medicine for about a day. I still smellit in my sinuses I think. Fortunately I saw it coming and used a towel around the chick to keep my clothes and everything else secure.

 

[aggiemae]

I’ve noticed that when this happens at 5-6 weeks I usually end up finding I have a little too in the mix.

 

[llombardo]

Yeah, I'm already initiated. After using the Pick No More, my hands were purple for 2 days and smelled like grape medicine for about a day. I still smellit in my sinuses I think. Fortunately I saw it coming and used a towel around the chick to keep my clothes and everything else secure.

Try using it on a duck..lol

 

[trudyg]

If they peck at the blue kote spot, you may want to put a spot of blue kote on all of them. The theory is that, if they're pecking the strange spot, they'll get over it quickly if they all have it. I"ve seen chicken houses ( on school field trips) where all the chicks have a spot on them to reduce pecking.

 

[IllinoisGuy]

Things went very well since I posted about my problem (feather picking and pecking one chicks neck), chicks were about 5 wks old at the time. I thought I should post an update on what we did to try and resolve the plucking and pecking for anyone having similar issues. I already mentioned doing the following:
1. expanded brooder space by about 25% (making about 2.5 sq. ft. per bird)
2. changed from a red heat lamp to a ceramic heat emitter so they slept all night (I figured if they can't see and are sleeping, they cant do much picking)
3. started feeding a well diced hard boiled egg as a treat before lights out

I also used pick-no-more (this did not turn out well, it seemed to make the bald spot an irresistible target.)

So, after the above was done the picking seemed a little less, but not stopped. We isolated the victim in a pet carrier IN the brooder so she could see and be seen by the group while preventing further harm. She stayed there for two days while I hoped the picker(s) would forget about the bald spot.

After two nights isolated in the carrier we pulled her out during the day and carefully coated all of the pink and red areas with Blu-Kote. We put her back to let it dry well. When we put the diced egg in that night (which they are nuts for) we slipped the victim back in with the other birds while they were distracted with the egg. She jumped right in, eating it with everyone else without anyone caring she was there. When they were done with the egg the Blu-Kote got some curious looks, but little more than that. Then it was lights out, which is a whole new apocalyptic crisis for them each night which left no time for or interest in picking/pecking and they all huddled up together in a corner for the night. Noticing they were not using the heat emitter much, I also took it out completely a few days later.

The Blu-Kote was reapplied once a day or two later. We didn't notice any further damage to the area, and by the time the Blu-Kote was gone completely they all seemed to have simply lost all interest in picking the bald spot.

A week later they were moved into their brand new coop with nice high roosts, which tripled their floor space and, of course, grew their area 3 dimensionally.

Now, I don't know if any or all of the efforts above stopped the problem, or if we just got lucky, but as of today everyone gets along great and pin feathers have swarmed the formally bald spot.

Thanks to everyone who helped out with this.