Savage Chick Battles

[Wyorp Rock]

Ever see roosters fight? Kicking, chest butting, screaming, grabbing at feathers and tearing just like sharks do. Its a full bite with shaking, the intent to tear.
Ill try to get pictures when i get home. Right now my son is babysitting trying to keep them apart.
One thing he observed is they seem to want to chase the others away from the warmth and light.
All thr chicks are under 2 weeks old.
None of them has had any meat or contact with injured chicks. They leave the day olds alone.

Interesting about chasing from the light. It could be territorial behavior, but check your brooder temperature nonetheless.

Chicks do fight/posture/chest bump, etc., to establish the pecking order, both pullets and cockerels do this, so gender is not necessarily the problem. Yes, even this young of an age pecking order is already in full swing. These 3 are making sure everyone knows that they are top tier chicks (for now).
This continues all throughout their whole lives. A lot depends on the personality of the chickens and possibly breed, but even adults show some type of dominance to one another on a daily basis. If you have an established flock, watch your top hen, she does "rule" somehow, it can be a stare down/stink eye, peck, whine or flogging if necessary- sometimes it's so subtle that you may not even know what she's doing, but it's there. I am no expert on behavior, I'm still learning and have made mistakes, but it's very interesting just to sit or stand out of the way inside the run, let them go about their business and observe, each member of the flock knows their place, but still occasionally tests the waters, there is always another hen looking to move up the chicken ladder.

Pecking order can seem very brutal at times, but such is the culture of chickens. If no blood is being drawn, then it may be better to let it play out. Chickens can be dramatic, they act and sound like they are being shredded to pieces and dying. If you keep intervening, the battle continues. If blood is being drawn, then intervention would be needed.

Having plenty of space always helps, if there is room, put a few obstacles in the brooder to break up line of vision.

Just my thoughts.

 

[sylviethecochin]

are they all roosters

Gender doesn't (usually) matter until they're at least ten weeks old. That's when the hormones start kicking in. Before that, pullets are easily as brutal as cockerels, and often moreso.

 

[Rose Quartz]

Im not sure whats going on. Ive never dealt with this issue before.

I hope someone here can help!

Chicks hatched out Friday afternoon.

Last night its like battle royal.

3 chicks are doing it. If we put them in a dark warm box they are fine together. But the moment we put them in the brooder they blow up on eachother. Its not little pecks its grabbing on and trying to tear at eachother! They even pick on the 1 week old chicks with them!

Ive never seen this behavior before in chicks this young!!

Tonight i will reduce the heat because i read that could be part of it. Im also going to get some red bulbs.

If this doesnt stop im not sure what to do!
Any ideas??

The brooder is 2ft wide by 4ft long. There are 15 chicks. The breed is EE/Wellsummer x Svart Hona.

do you have a second brooder the same size that you can put half in? It could just be that they're fighting over space.

 

[Rooster G]

Sounds like normal dynamics to me. They will sort it out. I would not worry until you see blood.

 

[Reurra]

Ok we separated the 2 fighters from the rest and let them duke it out. It seems they have settled their differences and are now resting in the brooder with the rest in a tentative attempt to reintroduce them.

I reduced the lights from 250W Heat lamp to 2 150W regular bulbs. They fought pretty hard under the new bulbs even when dimmed. But now they "appear" ok. Thats why we are trying them out back with the general population.

So far so good.

 

[Reurra]

Well all night with the main group and no major issues!! Lets hope that drama is over with! Lol

 

[centrarchid]

I went through a bout similar yesterday evening and do it multiple times per year. With mine, the first round of such battles over rank occurs around 5 weeks although in some instances it can occur as early as 3 weeks. Multiple approaches can be be used. My usually approach is placing an adult rooster in with them before the fighting starts. Something he does early in morning may be preventing fighting later in the day. Juvenile roosters also work for this where only 1 or 2 are added to a group of younger, usually only 1/2 the size or chicks I am worried about. Those methods require resources many do not have. Another approach is to make miniature cages that are used to house combatants singly in close proximity to each other. The aggressive impulses with pass in hours or at most a day or two. Keeping them close prevents imprinting they have on each other from breaking down. When the stop making the sounds associated with aggression they can be released.