# Chicken cannibal!!



## Nancy B (Mar 8, 2020)

I was devastated this evening when I went to check on my chicks when I saw that one was laying prone and was being eaten by another chick!! From what I can surmise she got a leg trapped between the roosting bar and watered and the other chicks must have pecked her to death. 

My question is, do I need to now worry about my chickens attacking each other now that they have a taste for cannibalism, or was this purely them taking advantage of an opportunity and as long as I remove the danger of them being cornered or trapped they are ok?

I’m worried now that they may start attacking each other! And, of course, it’s my feisty little Ancona with most of the blood on her face making me suspect her/him of initiating the kill.


----------



## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Are you absolutely certain it was caught? It's not uncommon for chickens to go after the weakest in the group. 

Of course remove any possibility of getting stuck, if one did it chances are that another one will too. 

If they've got everything they need in the way of food and space it should not be a continuing problem.


----------



## Nancy B (Mar 8, 2020)

I’m pretty sure it was stuck because its feet were still caught when I found it. It wasn’t the weakest physically because I have a polish chick and another unknown chick that are far smaller than the one killed which was a cuckoo maran. 

But that being said, they still had plenty of water and 2 sources of food that were still quite full. But these Anconas are feisty, they are quick to peck me or anyone within distance. 

I’ll have to keep an eye on the situation. I removed the hazardous roost.


----------



## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Just because they're small doesn't mean they're weak. I had a dwarf that ruled the world and the coop. I had a bantam Hamburg go after a Red Tail Hawk when he threatened her peeps. But weak can mean some physical issue that they can sense but we can't see.


----------



## Sylie (May 4, 2018)

This is definitely a concern. I would watch them very closely. If it happens again then you have a very serious problem.
I agree with Robin in that they can sense a weakness. Most pack animals (flock animals in this case) do that out of a prehistoric sense of survival "survival of the fittest". A weak, ill, injured pack member is a threat, it will draw predators to the pack so their instinct is to get rid of it before a predator can find it and take out the entire pack (flock). 

If this is the case and that chick was sick or injured or whatever, then you probably will be okay. If that one bird is just blood thirsty, that's a serious problem for the rest of the flock.
How old are these chicks?


----------



## Sylie (May 4, 2018)

I just went back and looked at the pictures you posted on March 12th and again on March 22 and my opinion is that they are still a bit young to have developed a survival of the fittest mentality on their own. My guess is that you have a chick with a cannibal issue. Watch it very closely. 
Did the chick drown in the water container because it was stuck? If that's a possibility then it could be the reason for the cannibalism. Although, again, they are a little young to do that. Usually that trait in chickens doesn't develop until they are closer to laying age and it usually starts because one chicken has a bleeding sore that attracts their attention, they curiously peck at the sore and find the taste of blood to be something they want and then they continue to peck at it to get the blood. They will not stop just because the chicken is dead, they will eat the corpse if given the opportunity. 
I know this was graphic and I apologize for that but there is no delicate way to talk about this subject.
I"m really concerned that the initiating chicken has a problem.


----------



## Nancy B (Mar 8, 2020)

I will watch it closely—if it happens again what’s the best course of action, isolating the one chick that’s the problem or just culling it? The chicks are 8 weeks old. I have a picture of the one that was killed. She looked pretty healthy to me, no signs of injury or illness prior to yesterday events. 

I have a pit in my stomach, that was really sad and tragic, I hope that it’s an isolated incident, but I’m willing to do whatever to protect the rest of the chicks


----------



## Nancy B (Mar 8, 2020)

The chick that died didn’t drown in water, she was just face down with her leg stuck. Her neck was at a weird angle, so I don’t know if when she got her leg stuck she fell and broke her neck. By the time I saw the issue she was face down and the Anconas were pecking her below her tail feathers and made a descent sized hole in her vent. No intestines or guts were reached—yet—but they were literally eating the dead chick.

We check on the chicks twice a day and have a baby camera to watch them....but this evening we were busy (sick baby) and I didn’t check on them until later In the evening. That said, food and water was more than adequate.


----------



## Sylie (May 4, 2018)

To be honest, if it happens again, I would cull the offending chick. I know that's hard to think about and harder to do but it will never end and someday it could be a perfectly healthy, normal chicken that she decides to do it to. You don't need a chicken that's going to to do this to your entire flock.


----------

