So i got my chicks on 3/22 and I have started feeding them worms (earth & meal). The problem is once the feeding fenzy ensues, One of the chicks will end up with the last piece and all the others will chase her around the brooder. Chick size/ pecking order does not seem to play a role. This results in at least one or two good solid pecks during the chase, (the kind where they clamp on and there is a Ouch! peep). Have not seen any blood yet. Thank my lucky eggs It seems highly aggressive and if anyone has ideas on how to curb it I would appreciate it.
Don't feed you chicks earthworms. They carry many diseases that are can affect you birds. The mealworms are fine.
I thought the same too about feeding chicks earthworms but then realized as soon as they go outside they will find them and eat them its a fact of life all chicks and chickens do it. I under stand the worms can carry some disease but we cant go around pulling worms away from our girls every time they dig one up lol. I think the worms are ok. And as for the chicks chasing each other its normal they are fighting over tastey food. A few pecks here and there im sure are nothing to worry over edited to say maybe to distract the chicks once the worms are almost gone maybe sprinkle some crushed cheerios or some type of chicken scratch or grass on the floor and they should happily start scratching around and forget who had the last worm piece.
All my girls free-range on the farm - they eat worms, grubs, ticks, fleas, stinkbugs, and whatever else they can find... no problems. In fact, at this time of the year, they hardly eat the food that I put out for them. They turn up their beak, walk out of the coop and head for the meadow, my yard, and garden (I've got to fence my garden this year). Last fall when I was digging up my potatoes - my girls were right next to me eating and scratching to their hearts content every bug and worm they could find. I give them plenty of fresh water and grit and haven't had any issues. They even layed eggs all winter. I wouldn't worry about it...
Thank you for all the input. I agree with the majority that hey there are worms everywhere and they will get eaten haha. Ill just treat them if they get sick, as remote as the chance is.
We have one chick that eats faster and is more aggressive about getting more than her share. I think there is one is every flock I throw out a handful of seedling thinnings from the garden or kitchen scraps with the worms having lots of different thinks to looks at and scratch seems to help. Our chicks are 9 weeks old and I have been setting their portable run over a patch of dandelions in our grass for about a week. They ate the flowers but that was pretty much it. Then just today one of them figured out how to scratch out weeds (and grass) too get her own bugs. The others were fast learners and I can probably move the run to a new spot in a few days.
When I pick spinach for my chickens I always find myself counting the leaves to make sure I got one for every chicken and more extra so the greedy guts don't mug the slower ones. My DH had such a laugh the other day when I was breaking up some bread for them and I'm standing in the kitchen breaking it into a bowl counting the pieces. Counting out loud. Always making sure I have more pieces than chickens...
