What to do to prevent chicks from pecking apart the brooder/eachother?

[[email protected]]

let them be chickens and not pets.. and you will be fine.. love them and all.. but just always remember to let them be chickens...a pecking order and everything.. there are going to be days when you are not there.. so let them learn very early!

 

[Pineywoods Peepers]

My RIR pullets were particularly mean to the other chicks the first week or so they were here. (I was beginning to think they were the spawn of Satan.) Now all the chicks are two weeks old, and everyone seems to be getting along pretty well. They seem to be doing less pecking at each other, but there's lots of chest bumping and flapping, and they are still constantly pecking at the brooder. I used twine to affix a cardboard lining to the dog crate brooder housed in, and they've managed to peck every single piece of twine until its completely frayed an coming apart. Yesterday I put a frozen bottle of water in to keep them cooler, and set a paper towel underneath it to absorb the sweat. They pecked that paper towel down to a nub. Today they pecked all of the paper label off of the frozen bottle of water. They didn't bother the paper the day before. eeks!

Rachel