This was the question we have been asking ourselves for the past few days. The chicks have developed a pretty nasty habit of occasionally pecking each other (usually the rear and tail) sometimes to the point of bleeding. Once they see the color red they keep pecking and pecking. In Colorado we never had any problem. We only had three chicks at a time and used a red heat lamp because they say the red color of the lamp camouflages the red in the blood.

We knew we wouldn’t need a heat lamp for long here in Puerto Rico and we didn’t see one at the local agro, so we figured they would be fine for a couple of weeks with a regular heat lamp. It could have been the lighting or just the sheer number of them, but we started to see the occasional peck here and there until just this week we saw some gruesome pecked sores and knew we had to make some changes.

Ouch!

Raising this many chicks in a brand new environment has been quite a learning experience. I am glad we had some basic knowledge of chickens from before in Greeley, but these differences (number of birds and new place) have presented new challenges we never had before. When we saw the first major pecking incidence on a chick we thought it was an isolated event so we just brought her and another chick buddy (they will chirp loudly if they are alone) into the house with us (in a cardboard box) until she began to heal.

The two tractors

By then they were also needing new bedding/litter much more frequently in the bathtub and were outgrowing it, so we decided to build them the chicken tractor. They quickly outgrew the first one, so we built another one and then we moved the two sick bay patients into the smaller tractor. This worked for a while until we saw more of the pecking going on. We tried throwing them kitchen scraps (they love lettuce!) and that kept them busy and occupied for a while, but the pecking continued. A bullied bird in an enclosure can’t really escape the peckers and so the pecking continues. When we saw these gruesome peckings I knew we had to do something else.

Three chicks hanging out under a flower bush

So today we opened the flood gates and let them out to roam in the chainlink fenced yard near the cabana. We were nervous because they are only 5 weeks old and are still very vulnerable to predators like the hawks and they are still small enough to get through the fence links, but we had to do something. It’s that balance between freedom and security. Too much time in a cage (total security) will drive a bird (or person!) crazy with boredom enough to peck each other, but not enough (total freedom) and they are vulnerable to becoming hawk bait.

Our little black and white Mohawk chick is doing well. Chicken aficionados: Guess what breed she is

The good thing is that chickens like to stay near to where their shelter, food and water is located which means that while they are really hard to catch if they don’t want you to, they will stay relatively close by. Because they are near us and the house they also have some relative protection as well. As evening closed in, the chicks started to huddle together and we easily placed them into the chicken tractor to sleep.

This whole experience has also put a fire under us to get the chicken coop finished ASAP so that we can move them into there in the evenings instead of the tractor. It’s coming along nicely and will probably be finished tomorrow or the next day and painted soon after. Britton has done a great job on it and built the whole thing himself with only a little assistance from me.

Progression of a coop

We continue to learn new lessons as we put this new life of ours together here in Puerto Rico. And life is ever the great teacher- for the lessons will never end as long as you are growing as a person. I just hope that not too many tail feathers were lost in the process of learning this one! 🙂