Pecking and Cannibalism???!!!

[Fn87]

Hi this is my first time raising chicks and everything has been going okay for the most part but I'm starting to experience issues with pecking since the chicks have begun feathering out.

I work at a farm so we're raising around 300 chicks in a big brooder in our greenhouse. Around 70 of them are leghorns, 25 are welsummers, 100 are isa browns, and 100 are various easter eggers.
They're all about five weeks old (the easter eggers are one week younger than the rest) and the leghorns are by far the biggest. They started feathering sooner than the other breeds and two weeks ago we noticed that their tails were getting picked at a bit by some of the younger chicks. Last week it was getting a bit concerning and one of the leghorns was even bleeding pretty substantially from a broken tail feather. The isa browns seemed the most attracted to the blood and we put some baby powder on the wounds to try to staunch the bleeding. We don't have and blu-kote.

This week, we had to separate out some of the leghorns because it was getting to be pretty bad. I know cannibalism is learned can be brought on by things like temperature and available space. We're going to expand their space soon because they're getting older, but the leghorns have already been pecked a lot and I worry that it won't stop because the other chicks have developed a habit. Of course, I would love to isolate each afflicted chick as well as any and all aggressors, I'd love to treat all the wounds because it pains me to see them like this, but we just don't have the space or the time to set up heated enclosures for those that need to be isolated.

I know this site is called BackYard Chickens but does ANYONE have ANY advice on what I can do to deal with this issue on the scale of 300 chicks? They have sufficient water and food. Should we be giving them toys? Is baby powder a bad idea? Should we be getting chick grit? How do we get this under control???

 

[50-45-1]

Space is the biggest issue here. Get them more room as soon as you can.
Other things to try would be anti pick lation. It tastes bad and will help.
Lighting. If you have lighting switch to red bulbs. It will make everybody red colored, not just the injured chicks.
Separation. If you have just a few chicks 10 to 20. You may need to get them out quick. Finding a partially eaten chick skeleton one morning is not a pleasant sight.
Give them things to occupy their time. A bowl is grit, a leaf of hay to scratch around in, hang a cabbage or lettuce or something of interest to peck at.
Build a jungle Jim or add branches for them to perch and play on. Add clutter. A few apple crates. A kitchen chair in its side (make sure it cant tip over on them) this stuff will also give the bullied chicks a place to escape to.
Good luck!

 

[Fn87]

Right! Okay yes. We have an enclosure outside the brooder that we let them out in during the day but at the moment we have to put them away at night because our electric fence battery won't hold a charge to keep it running at night. As soon as we get the new battery installed we'll be able to let them out all the time so they will have more space then.

I was in the brooder today picking out the chicks with the wounds so we could separate them and all of our heat lamps are either ceramic or red bulbs so I was realizing as I searched for the wounded chicks that it was harder to tell which ones were hurt in the red light. But your reference to this makes me realize this is probably why they seemed to go into more of a frenzy during the day. I initially thought it was because they were more awake so they were more restless but we let them out during the day during which time they are in pretty much just normal daylight. No red light. There was some string hanging from the ceiling of the brooder and one of the birds was hopping up and down to reach it and they're always playing with the strings from my hoodie so I think I'll give a hung up cabbage a try.

On a second note, we've been putting baby powder on some of their butts to hide the broken feather cuts so I wasn't sure if I was looking at wet baby powder or something more sinister but I think I'd rather be safe than sorry. Some of the chicks have this whitish clumping stuff on their butts. I'm not sure if it's diarrhea or something else or if it's related to the feather wounds (which tend to crop up towards their butts too) or if it could be intestinal bacteria or vent gleet or something? What could it be? And besides the obvious cleaning of their butts in this situation, what should I be doing to treat the chicks and prevent anything from getting worse?

 

[HKG]

Space is the biggest issue here. Get them more room as soon as you can.
Other things to try would be anti pick lation. It tastes bad and will help.
Lighting. If you have lighting switch to red bulbs. It will make everybody red colored, not just the injured chicks.
Separation. If you have just a few chicks 10 to 20. You may need to get them out quick. Finding a partially eaten chick skeleton one morning is not a pleasant sight.
Give them things to occupy their time. A bowl is grit, a leaf of hay to scratch around in, hang a cabbage or lettuce or something of interest to peck at.
Build a jungle Jim or add branches for them to perch and play on. Add clutter. A few apple crates. A kitchen chair in its side (make sure it cant tip over on them) this stuff will also give the bullied chicks a place to escape to.
Good luck!

I am screenshoting this for people with future problems

 

[FlipFlopFarmer6279]

Right! Okay yes. We have an enclosure outside the brooder that we let them out in during the day but at the moment we have to put them away at night because our electric fence battery won't hold a charge to keep it running at night. As soon as we get the new battery installed we'll be able to let them out all the time so they will have more space then.

I was in the brooder today picking out the chicks with the wounds so we could separate them and all of our heat lamps are either ceramic or red bulbs so I was realizing as I searched for the wounded chicks that it was harder to tell which ones were hurt in the red light. But your reference to this makes me realize this is probably why they seemed to go into more of a frenzy during the day. I initially thought it was because they were more awake so they were more restless but we let them out during the day during which time they are in pretty much just normal daylight. No red light. There was some string hanging from the ceiling of the brooder and one of the birds was hopping up and down to reach it and they're always playing with the strings from my hoodie so I think I'll give a hung up cabbage a try.

On a second note, we've been putting baby powder on some of their butts to hide the broken feather cuts so I wasn't sure if I was looking at wet baby powder or something more sinister but I think I'd rather be safe than sorry. Some of the chicks have this whitish clumping stuff on their butts. I'm not sure if it's diarrhea or something else or if it's related to the feather wounds (which tend to crop up towards their butts too) or if it could be intestinal bacteria or vent gleet or something? What could it be? And besides the obvious cleaning of their butts in this situation, what should I be doing to treat the chicks and prevent anything from getting worse? View attachment 2498278View attachment 2498280

It looks like pasty butt. It's usually caused by stress or the chick being too hot. Try wiping it off with a damp cloth (damp not wet) VERY gently. If that doesn't work try running its butt under lukewarm water, once the poop has softened try to wipe it off again. Don't use too much or too cold water. If this is happening with a lot of your chicks it probably means they're too hot. I would put the heat lamp up higher. Maybe put some probiotics in their water. You could also offer sand along with their regular food. It should work as grit for the younger chicks. Maybe try using something like this instead of a heat lamp. My chicks love it! https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/producers-pride-brooder-and-coop-heater?cm_vc=-10005 Though you do have 300 of them...