??White Laced Red Cornish...Cannibalistic!!

[heckelfish]

4 weeks old, we have only our list from MMcMurry Hatchery to go by, and all your BYC expert advice and pictures to guess what our 26 chicks are. One of these chicks is really aggressive. It relentlessly pecks at all the other birds. We are handling it a lot, but as soon as we put it back it starts up again. We read on the site that this breed can be cannibalistic, that is one of the reasons we think it is a Cornish. Any ideas? All of the birds are in large boxes in our living room (chicken village) waiting for the weather to get warmer, so we can keep a good eye on the situation. We are a little worried once we are able to put it in the coop.

 

[stephanie1992]

could be wyandottes

 

[heckelfish]

hummmm...we thought wyandottes had a flat comb and not a single straight like comb???

 

[Pele]

It's a bit early to tell, they very well could be Cornish. I would isolate the aggressive one for a week, and if it's right back to it's old ways, cull it. Putting up with nasty behavior in domesticated animals is counterproductive, and makes your life harder (not to mention all of it's victims' lives). I wouldn't say it's cannibalistic, just mean.

 

[stephanie1992]

hummmm...we thought wyandottes had a flat comb and not a single straight like comb???

cornish have flat combs too. do these have single combs??

 

[hdowden]

just sounds mean its not killing and eating its flock mates but i wouldnt keep it with them...it could be cornish but it is a bit early (for me at least) to tell

 

[heckelfish]

Thanks for the help. The general consensus is that they are wl red cornish.

We took your advice and separated the one that was really pecking everybody, then put him/her in with some older chicks who picked on him. (It ran). We are also handling him a lot. All of this has helped a little, so we will keep at it. Right now it is easy to keep up with because all the chicks are in Chick Village (my living room) in large boxes, waiting for the weather to warm up to move outside to the coop.