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Beauty-Box

New chooks-advice needed!

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Hi All, :D

My next door neighbour bought some fertile eggs and hatched them using his pigeons. He rehomed two which turned out to be cocks, and he now has two hens (Silkie crosses). They were supposed to go to his daughter, but she does not want them now. I said I would have them (Me and my big mouth!) :roll: . But now I am really nervous about introducing them to my two. I would really appreciate some advice about this.

Please help! :pray:

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How old are they Rebecca? If they are the same size not too bad, if they are much smaller then the introductions may need to be a bit slower.

 

If your old girls have always been together, they may be quite aggressive to the newcomers. Just take it slowly, maybe introduce the newbies at night. In the morning, let the older girls out to freerange and leave the newbies in the run. Put them back together in the evening. Let the older girls out to freerange a bit later every day. That is how I would aim to do it, but all chooks are different so you may have to play it by ear. Good luck! 8)

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I have just introduced 4 new girls to my established group of 6 big girls and 6 bantams. They are all in a stable together and I kept the new girls - who are all 20 weeks old and the same size as my big girls - shut in the eglu run for a couple of days so that they could all get used to each other before letting them out. There have been a few skirmishes, but nothing worse than happens on a daily basis and, to be honest, I think there would be some pecking/chasing etc in any event, however long I had kept them separated. That's just chickens! As long as it doesn't get out of hand, and the chooks are similar sizes, you should be fine. Good luck!

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I did a gradual introduction. My new chooks had seperate sleeping quarters to begin with (I used a dog carrier/cage). I firstly allowed the original chooks to free range whilst the new ones were shut in, I would then reverse this. Eventually I would let them all out together with supervision and like Button said, make sure the new ones have space to run away - so if you have a big run that is ideal.

 

After about 9/10 days they became much better and now we can let them free range or be confined in a run together. :)

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Hi Rebecca! It's good to have advice from those who've done it before, but also remember that your instincts will tell you what to do - just like with your children.

 

If the aggression is really bad, you will separate them. If it's mostly the odd peck and new ones running away, you'll feel gradually more and more comfortable.

 

I introduced 4 to 3 in September. I'd had the 3 for 2 years and the aggression from one in particular was absolutely awful. She stalked the new ones and would not leave them alone. She ended up with a bumper bit so that she couldn't actually hurt them. :lol:

 

Then in December (having lost Piccolo) we introduced 2 more to the now established crowd of 6. That has gone really well and really easily. One is fully integrated but the other keeps herself separate. They all just ignore her!

 

I read on here that things will be relatively settled after 3 weeks. That was spot on the first time. The second time it was about 10 days. It takes about 3 months for them to be fully mixed - and I would agree with that too.

 

You will love them! :D

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