The Bloods vs. the Crips (the feathered version)

I have mentioned that our latest batch of chicks is rather feisty.  Well maybe that isn't a good description.  We seem to have some chicks that are just plain bullies.  And they discriminate by color!  Both kinds of black chicks we have are getting picked on.  Literally.  Feathers picked off their backs and then they are pecked until they bleed.  Unless I keep Rooster Booster Pick No More slathered on their backs. 

We really liked the pool set up.  It was fun having the chicks in our living room and being able to watch them.  It worked for a bit but then the pecking began again.  I thought maybe a dozen chicks in the kiddie pool were just too many?  Frank built them a new area this past Saturday.

We have a screened in porch (that has plastic over the screen).  He put up a wall and a door in a corner of the room. (The door was off a chicken coop that Frank's father had built and once used.  His mama said that the old door was off a barn in Washington County.)  A liner on the floor with wood shavings on top of that.  Food, water, their red heat lamps, and perches - it is a nice big roomy space.

Everyone got along for the rest of the weekend.  Then after mid-morning yesterday, I checked on the chicks and saw the black chicks were all missing back feathers again and one was bleeding!

OK it was obvious by now that the chicks had assembled themselves into gangs and their was a pecking war going on.  (Yes I kept trying to deny it.  "Why can't we all just get along?")  Hunter came into the chicken area to play cop and hold the hurt chick while I searched for a quick makeshift divider.  I ended up with a wooden post and two cardboard boxes.  Nailed in the boxes to the post and viola - the Berlin Wall was up.

Next we separated the chickens - blacks on one side, browns and yellows on the other.  I dubbed the black chicken group the "Bloods" and the others the "Crips."  (Named after the two famous gangs in Los Angeles.)

I doctored up the bleeding chick and put Rooster Booster on the others.  There finally seems to be peace in the land ....

I just hope these chicks outgrow their gang mentality and can get along when it's time for them to go to the yard.

UPDATE:  By mid-morning today, the wall had been breached!  Gang members had infiltrated both sides by flying over.  The only thing I could think of to do, that could be done quickly, was to hang an old sheet.  We'll see if this flimsy solution can hold back the war for a bit more.

If you've ever had problems with your chicks fighting, and found solutions, please share!