Pecked comb - too crowded?

[featherz]

My chicks are 4.5 weeks old and are a mix of white leghorns and RIR. The leghorns have larger combs than the RIR (all yellow so far) and today I noticed that one has a bit of blood on its head and just a tiny peck to its comb. No active bleeding, just dried blood. I haven't noticed them pecking each other, but obviously that's happening. No evidence of any feather pecking that I can see and there's no squabbling at least when I'm in the room unless I'm giving them a cut up grape.

I'm planning to get some blue-cote if my TSC has any and I'll use neosporin (without the pain reliever), so I can fix the damage, but I am concerned about the cause. The coop is 99% done, but I wasn't planning to move them out there until at least this weekend when my husband is home, just in case we need to do any last minute fixes. My original plan was to put them out at 6 weeks but..

Some background info-I've had the red light off for several days now since it's been HOT in the daytime and high 60's/low 70's at night-is that the most likely cause of the pecking or is because they are overcrowded? There are eight chicks and the brooder is 6' long by 2' wide and 2' tall. They seem comfortable enough, but they are getting large so I'm thinking that 6 weeks is going to be too long to wait.

Thoughts? Oh, and no obvious roo signs yet - all are supposed to be hens but you know how that goes.

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

Sounds to me like you had a little scuffle between two chicks and one got pecked. This happens as they decide who will be the boss - they square off and jump and peck. Sometimes one ends up with a small comb wound - I usually do nothing for this - as long as it is not drawing the other birds attention.

 

[teach1rusl]

I agree...most likely just a scuffle. Your brooder space sounds fine, although I'd consider going ahead an sticking them out @ 5 weeks. The new space will be very distracting for them