Some one please HELP !!! I don't know what is wrong!? (Pic)

[k2chickens]

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I am really worried because we have 5 six week old chicks in there and 7 three week old chicks. I am going to separate the younger ones from the 5 older ones and separated the injured one as well! I only have one heat lamp for the night so Im hoping the older girls will be okay without one for the night. Not sure what to do about that?

I let the older chicks out everyday and they were actually out today about 4 hours before I went to check on them again! The younger chicks didn't seem to be the ones pecking at audrina and it seemed like only the two most aggressive chicks which are six weeks old were the ones who were doing all the hurting and pecking!

 

[redhen]

I'd kill all those little cannibals. really. (or re-home them..but tell the people they are cannibals..) I'd start over..get new chicks. these ones seem to have issues. but thats just me. good luck

 

[k2chickens]

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I don't want to lose all twelve of my babies but only two seem to be really aggressive and were the ones hurting audrina I do want them out tho and I don't want them showing the others this behavior or attacking another innocent chick! I can't believe they would do this

I never knew chicks could do this!

 

[Cetawin]

No need to kill them it is normal behavior if there is too much age difference, they are too crowded or are very bored. I lost a Salmon Faverolle to that..they actually rupture one of her air sacs and I could not save her. Once I got them into the big coop...all that stopped.

Just remember one thing...the first sight of blood and they will attack that area. That is why most of us use a red heat lamp bulb...if any blood is drawn, accidentially or otherwise, it is hard for them to see it and notice the difference.

Clean it well as ruth indicated a sterile saline solution or betadine...put neosporin on it just make sure it DOES NOT have the pain reliver in it...that will kill your girl. Keep her isolated, add electrolytes to her water, give her some scrambled egg for extra protein and let her heal. when you re-introduce, so so slowly.

Good luck with her, unless they hit an airsac of something else rupture sensitive, she should heal up fine for you.

 

[k2chickens]

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Finally I can exhale and feel some relief that there is hope and that they will ALL be just fine! I think for tonight I am just going to separate all the girls to give them even more room and keep them away from each other for the night until we can get them into the coop. I don't want to risk hurting any of the other girls!

 

[k2chickens]

Will the older six week old chicks be okay for the night without a heat lamp? They would be in high 50's to low 60's degrees temperatures for the night.

 

[peepsnbunnies]

Last year I had white silkie babies, and when they get feathers, you can see the pink feathershaft really good. They started picking the ones on one babies foot and I could not get them to stop until I washed the blood off and dried the foot then took a black sharpie marker and colored the area that looked red. They never bothered it again and it healed fine, no problems at all. They do get excited over RED.

 

[rufus]

At six weeks of age, they should be out in the chicken yard by now. The weather is warm enough.

Don't mix chickens of different ages in the same yard. You can try to integrate them when they are as big as the others, but usually they don't mix socially. You may just have a war on your hands.

The picked chicken can be cleaned up and blue koted, but the problem will reoccur if you put her back into that flock.

Cannibalism indicates that something is wrong in the flock. Either they are too crowed or they are being fed incorrectly.

Your chicken yard should be big enough for the lower ranking hens to run away from the dominate hens.

Make sure they get lots of greens like grass, weeds etc.

Rufus

 

[k2chickens]

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What is blue koted?

 

[Brick243]

I've had pretty good luck using Blue Kote on the wound. Use plastic gloves, because it will stain your fingers. Then I smear some Vicks Vapo Rub on top of that. Some people use pine tar.

I also boil a few eggs and feed the yolk to them. I try to keep grass and clover in the pen also. After you put them on green cover a lot of the picking will stop.