Aggressive or Normal? 5 day old chick

[AnachainAcres]

Hello Everyone!

I am new here but have been coming to this site for information for awhile. This is my second flock of chicks. My question is in regards to one chick that seems aggressive for its age. The chick in question stands tall and "attacks" any other that comes near. I get that chicks play by jumping all over one another but this one pins the other and pecks their head. There are 9 chicks total 5 brown chipmunk and 4 yellow/brown. The "aggressive" chick is a yellow/brown. I have noticed after some time watching them this afternoon that the yellow/brown chicks seem to be chasing the chipmunk colored ones away from the food and water as well. I have separated them now. The yellow/brown are also not easy to pick up or handle they go after your hand and kick at your hand with their feet. They are very vocal about the fact they don't like being picked up. The others are sweet as can be curious and step right into your hand. I don't remember my last flock ever acting like this but my last flock ended up being 15 hens and one roo. Are these behaviors possible roosters just being roos or is something else going on? They seem young for that. Below is info on the brooder setup.

9 chicks total- from what i was told the rooster (father) was an Olive Egger, Hens (mothers) Easter Eggers (laid blue and hatched chipmunk pattern) and ISA brown which hatched the yellow/brown chicks, i don't care what color they end up laying i didn't get them for any specific color.

Acquired from local backyard breeder

Brooder is 2ftx2ft, temp is 95 directly under the lamp, feed purina chick starter medicated, grit, water supplemented with durastat oregano supplement plus a regular plain waterer.

All healthy active and curious otherwise.

Thank you for reading

 

[rosemarythyme]

Your brooder is too small for 2 reasons - it's not big enough to give them any relief from the high heat, and it's not big enough to fit 9 babies + feed + 2 waterers. Crowding applies to babies too.

By 2 weeks you will need more than double the amount of space they already have. Might as well increase it immediately to provide them more cool areas to use (part of the brooder should be around 90F, the rest should be 10-15 degrees cooler), as well as room for them to move around and not be on top of each other.

 

[AnachainAcres]

Ok thank you I will expand the brooder. The current setup is expandable and was not intended to be used the entire time they needed to be in a brooder. It's still pretty cold where I live (highs in the 40s) and the setup is in the garage so I think I was obsessing over not letting them get too cold.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Ok thank you I will expand the brooder. The current setup is expandable and was not intended to be used the entire time they needed to be in a brooder. It's still pretty cold where I live (highs in the 40s) and the setup is in the garage so I think I was obsessing over not letting them get too cold.

They won't get too cold, a heat lamp can output quite a lot of heat. Just double check with thermomter and keep an eye on their behavior to judge how hot/cold they are... if they're all huddled under the lamp all the time, too cold. If they're far away from it, too hot. Milling around between the two, and mostly quiet = just right.

 

[AnachainAcres]

So i expanded the coop this morning around 4 am so they have been in a larger space for roughly 5 hours now. the aggressiveness over the food from the yellow/brown chicks seems to have diminished. the one chick in particular that was causing the problems is still pinning the others and will still go for your hand with beak and feet. maybe it needs more time to adjust?

 

[Mamatomany123]

In my experience, isa browns are just plain mean. I had to rehomed a new laying brown hen because she was attacking the other hens, attacking the chicks, and started attacking me. Shes lucky I decided to find her a home instead of eating her. I will never buy that breed again.

 

[AnachainAcres]

Ok well good to know. I never dealt with this breed before.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Since they're still very young I wouldn't cull any chick as a problem yet, but it is something to keep an eye on.

 

[Tankueray]

While she's a chick, you may still be able to establish yourself as dominant in the same way that she does to the other birds. You can shoo her away when she's picking (like really mean picking) on the others and use your index finger as your beak to stand up to her. Not strike, poke, or peck; more of a gentle high five for her pecking where she understands that you're finger isn't retreating from her aggression. For extreme bad behaviour, you may have to pin her gently like she does with the others, but don't make a big deal out of it, scold her, or make her an example, just a quick "I'm not messing around" and done, that's it. You don't want the others to be terrified of you and you don't want her bullying more because she's getting bullied.

If she's jumping in the air and trying to get you with her feet, she might be a he. My gentle, grown pullets will thrash their legs around when picked up though, as will the chicks and ducks, claws are one of the only real defensive weapons they have.

First though, I would try to separate her while feeding to see if not being part of the group is enough to break the aggression. Everyone eats the same food at the same time and can see each other, she just has her own bowl and has to sit at the teacher's table. My little defiant EE ended up being the one that follows me around begging and talking to me all the time, and she's still one of the leaders of the flock, but not a bully.

 

[AnachainAcres]

After expanding out the brooder he/she has calmed down. I added an additional feeder that helped too. He will still sit over the other feeder but the others will just go the other feeder. Definitely still aggressive occasionally with the others but its less frequent. I will work more with him to accept my hands in the brooder as he is still going for my hands but I do see improvement.