Reason for chick biting

Poultry, especially chickens and chickens, always cause many problems for farmers in chicken coops. This problem begins to become urgent when the chicks are still very young, 3-4 weeks old and already the chickens are pecking each other to the blood. This can not be called a disease, but also normal. The question arises: “Why do chickens peck each other?”Usually, at a young age, birds become very active and excited, and this is precisely what causes such a surge of emotions: chicks peck each other, and sometimes even blood.

Why chickens peck each other

There can be a lot of reasons for aggressive behavior in the young coop. No need to think that the birds play and fight like this. Most often, underneath this all lies a number of factors that influence precisely this behavior of young animals.

Possible reasons for chicks to bite

If yesterday everything was normal in the chicken coop and nothing portended troubles, and in the morning there was a very unpleasant picture of pecking each other up to blood, this is the first bell. It is not completely known why young animals suffer from cannibalism among their own, however, this can lead to disastrous consequences: you just have to destroy the entire young generation.

To understand the problem of why chickens peck at each other, you need to find out the reason or several reasons why the birds behave this way. Here are some of them:

1. Improper diet, lack of necessary vitamins and minerals.
2. Bad lighting.
3. Birds in crowding.
4. The conditions of detention do not meet.

It is worth examining each of the reasons in more detail. Improper diet, bait, mixtures – some of this may not be suitable for babies, or they lack calcium, various minerals, vitamins.

By maintaining a balanced diet, you can prevent feathers and body skin from biting. The problem may be in complementary foods and in grains. If the second are large, then eating them, the birds do not feel satiety for a long time and begin to peck at each other, engaged in cannibalism. This is the problem of plant-based feeds, not loose feeds.

What can be done in case of a bite

what to do? It is enough to simply mix plant food with various additives, mixtures, vitamins, minerals, trace elements. The main thing is not to forget about calcium. In most cases, precisely because of a lack of calcium, babies begin to peck each other up to blood.

The second, but no less important reason is the crowding of birds.Getting a chicken coop after all, it is worth remembering and not to forget that insufficient space for young animals can cause aggression and biting among birds. At first glance, the problem does not seem so global, but a direct struggle begins for a place in the sun.

So, if you have a little experience in breeding birds or you just started a similar farm to prevent the problem why little chickens peck at each other friend, it’s enough not to start a large number of chickens in a small room. It’s easy enough to remember and if the bite begins to expand, you can expand the space in the chicken coop, otherwise aggression can grow to the whole brood, and you just lose it.

Incorrect lighting and inappropriate conditions for keeping chickens – these are usually two problems nearby. The nervous system of birds is very sensitive, and therefore they will stressfully respond to any change with lighting. Aggression in birds can be triggered by too bright light, this will lead to a stressful situation and biting will begin. On the contrary, broilers should receive exceptionally cold shades of light, they do not peck each other, they become calmer.

How to prevent chicks from biting

Keeping conditions also play an important role role in the development of winged. This should be in the first place before starting the birds. Oddly enough, chickens also need a properly moistened room.

Without this, the chickens will suffer from dry skin, lack of moisture in the body, dehydration. And all this will lead to a thickening of the shell, the release of fat eggs, as a result – eggs without shell in a soft film. Since all of the above phenomena are obvious irritants, aggression towards other chickens begins to peck up feathers and fabrics to blood.

If the birds are kept in enclosures and the feeder is small to feed everyone at once It’s worth thinking about increasing it. This is a simple hierarchy: the strongest will eat first, and the weakest will eat what remains.

Improper diet as a reason

We should talk about improper diet separately. The problem may arise not only on the basis of the first attempt to breed birds, but also depend on the producer of this feed itself. There are many videos that talk about seeds, grains, and Proper Diet.

It’s especially important to remember that nutrition is the main reason for biting.

The fault may be not only the owner of the chicken coop. The lack of trace elements important for the growing organism of young animals leads to the fact that chickens peck their relatives.

Just to replace themselves with the necessary vitamin in food, they begin to eat What they come across – their brothers. With a lack of nutrients, several main reasons can be distinguished:

1. A very important component in growth, calcium, can promote the aggressive behavior of birds.It is impossible to assert to the end that this particular element is always lacking. However, it is precisely because of a lack of calcium that the chickens bite to the blood, pluck feathers and peck their relatives.
2. At the age of one month, the chicks fall down and feathers. The lack of protein in chickens can affect the fact that they just start picking up this fluff or pluck it from others.
3. Using large grains in the feed is highly not recommended. As mentioned above, when feeding, it is better to use friable mixtures, especially to monitor the salt in the diet. Due to the lack of salts in the body of chickens, their condition worsens and the risk of aggression towards their breeds increases.

You need to monitor the proper diet of chickens. From 6-7 days, small birds can eat added chalk, shellfish, dairy products: yogurt, cottage cheese. From 10-12 days to add protein, it is found in ground fish bones. Also, one should not forget about salt: it is enough to add 2-3% of salt to the usual diet of chickens.

It is possible and necessary to release chickens from aviaries or a chicken coop, scattering cabbage leaves, carrots on the ground. This will prevent crowding and the first signs of hierarchy among chickens in a small room. By following these simple feeding rules, it is easy to avoid biting.

Problem-solving options

Having determined for yourself the reason for such an aggressive behavior by pecking each other with little chickens, you should think about a solution data problems. What to do in this case? Here are a few options:

1. Identifying the cause of the problem is half the battle. It remains to do quite a bit.If the problem is the wrong feeding of the chickens, you need to add to the diet what they eat: chalk, ground fish bones, salt, vitamins, cabbage leaves, carrots, trace elements in the preparations, green young grass.
2. When the chickens are crowded broilers beat their tail, peck the cloaca, pluck and peck each other. It is enough to prevent the “resettlement” of brawlers from place to place and expand the place in the aviary or chicken coop. Chickens should have free access to the feeders, and it is better to let them out for a walk in the fresh air. So the crowding problem may not appear.
3. Replace the lighting, if this is the reason. Either make the lighting not very bright so as not to provoke aggression, or replace it with calm shades. Chickens will see each other poorly, do not respond to the stimulus in order to avoid a stressful situation. A reddish light can also be a way out of this situation. The main thing is that other chickens do not see droplets of blood and open wounds on brothers do not bring their beak closer to them. Due to the red color, they will not be able to distinguish and see these wounds.

If there are brawlers, then you need to follow them and transfer them to another aviary or just separately from the main brood, otherwise weaker individuals simply they will peck. And treating an infected bird from infection and virus, which will easily and quickly manifest, will be much longer and more problematic.

Prevention of pecking

On the Internet there are many videos about pecking prevention, on the topic “Why do young chickens peck each other?”, they explain the reasons and what to do. In the first place of all such procedures is debicking. This is a completely painless process: cut the beak, but not completely, but only the tip.

You can correctly cut the beak using a laser or a hot blade. At the first stages of the life of chickens, this method is not very cheap, and therefore not so popular. When cutting a beak, problems in the chicken coop are fundamentally prevented, such as pecking feathers, tearing up tissue, subsequently infection and expensive treatment, and possibly the death of the entire population.

The main task of beginning farmers is to prevent all these causes and identify them at an early stage. Such problems are familiar not only to beginners, but also to large poultry farms.

If you can’t understand what the problem is, you can simply call a veterinarian who will tell and tell you the right diet, aviary sizes, lighting and vitamins can beak cut or advise the best options so that young animals do not cling to each other’s tail and does not provoke a bite.