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Carol U

New Girls!!!

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Collected my three new girls today! Most exciting, as they are beautiful, but also terrifying as I've never had to integrate new ones before. They are currently in a temporary house and pen, over which we've had to rig a sort of plastic tent to keep the worst of the rain off them. Meanwhile, my old girls are peering in at them and making horrible swearing noises! I could turn into a complete neurotic within the next week and bore you all to death!

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Don't worry, this is perfectly normal - both for you and your chooks! I would keep them separated for a few days until they get used to each other being around but, in my experience, there is bound to be some pecking and chasing etc however long you leave it. I have just introduced 4 new girls to my existing group, kept them separate for a couple of days and then left them to it. There is still the occasional skirmish - one week later - but on the whole they have settled down really well. It is important that the new girls are a similar size to your old girls though. Good luck!

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I worried before I got my new girls as i have heard introductions can be bad sometimes. However when we actually did it, it wasnt as bad as i thought it was going to be. We let the new girls out free ranging while the old ones were enclosed and kept switching them around. After about 4 days we let them all out together (with us supervising) there was some pecking but as long as the new ones have room to run away from the old bullies they will be fine.

 

All in all it took about a week which i didnt think was bad at all. :)

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Thank you all for your support - it really means a lot. Bedtime was a bit of a nightmare, but my fault, not theirs. They were quite happy in their new house and pen till it got dark. Then, they became quite desperate to escape and kept flying (quite high) over the wire. When we put netting over the top, they were throwing themselves against it and becoming quite frantic. In the end, I climbed in, put them in the house and closed the door. It then occurred to me (belatedly) that although we knew that the house was the safe place for the night, they didn't, as they'd never seen a henhouse before, having spent their lives so far in a barn with lots of others. Once the door was shut, they immediately settled down and went to sleep! We then transferred them over to the eglu with the old girls, as it's more foxproof. OH and I collapsed with large scotches!

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new chickens..............how eggciting :dance::dance::dance:

 

Don't worry they will be the best of friends..............it just takes a little while. We have now introduced new additions 4 times (at one point living in 3 different eglus) and now they all go to bed together in one eglu. All very happy and snug :D:D:D

 

You can never ever bore us lot with anything..........so ask away :D

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congratulations - happy new hens :lol:

 

but, hold on, you first posted at 2:30 (ish), that means, that you told us about these new girls about 7 hours ago AND WE DONT HAVE ANY PHOTOS :shock::shock::shock:

 

we NEED photos, to adore and go awwwww at :lol:

 

hurry up, get the camera ready, ill be waiting :lol::lol: (only joking - tomorrow will do :lol: )

 

cathy

x

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