We have lost a few chicks to being pecked and have had a few injured. In this blog I will share what may be the cause of this fairly common (and extremely unpleasant) chicken problem, and what you can do to stop it.
What Causes It
The primary reason chickens or chicks peck each other is out of boredom or stress caused by overcrowding or an inability to engage in natural behavior. If your chickens are in a permanent pen and the ground has been turned to dirt, they have very little to do.
Chickens naturally spend large amounts of time searching for food. Even if they have a full feeder, they will still have the instinct to search for food. Chickens weren't created to sit around all day in dirt pens and eat from feeders. And the more chickens you have under these conditions the more likely they are to get either frustrated at each other and start pecking, or simply do it to pass time.
If they were on pasture, they would be spending a lot of time hunting for bugs and grazing rather than just sitting around. Overcrowding can cause problems even on pasture. Another thing that can cause it is if one of your chickens gets hurt and bleeds, chickens naturally peck at red, so, especially in permanent pastures, the hurt chicken is likely to get pecked.
How to Stop It
The first thing to do is to remove any injured chickens and put them in their own pen.
Then, if the other ones are in a permanent pen that has been turned to dirt, the best thing to do would be to get them out on pasture. Check out our blog on Pasturing a Large Flock of Laying Hens for some tips on that.
If they are on pasture and doing it, they are probably overcrowded. We have found that up until about eight weeks, chicks need at least two square feet each of pasture that is fairly dense if they aren't to peck each other. Once they are about eight weeks old, they can be contained fairly well with Premier's poultry netting.
Another thing that could be stressing them out on pasture is insufficient shade. You should aim for at least one square foot of shade per chicken. If it's very hot I would recommend that you have their pasture under some trees so they can have as much shade as possible.
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