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Hazel_L

Getting 6 new hens !!!

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Yesssss

At last the new Point of Lays are ready for collection from my local poultry lady - due to pick up on Saturday 6 new girlies !! I'm really excited.

 

Slightly worried about how they'll get on with my 2 old ladies... OH has built them a nice house (too skint to buy a cube at the moment)

 

One question - should we let the newbies have the house and leave the 2 oldies in the eglu for the time being ? Ideally we'd like them all in the new house as space is tight in the run.

 

They'll all have to share the outdoor run, should I let Twinkle & Jean range and leave the others in the run for a week or so ?

 

Cheers

 

(we've decided not to name them as there's quite a high turnover of hens here :? but just watch my sig ;))

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Are your new 6 hens or bantams? If they are hens then perhaps the new house would be better as I think the Eglu only fits 4 chickens.

 

I've only got experience of introducing 1 chook to 3 existing ones. There was a fair amount of nasty pecking order being played out in the run, so I did separate them in the day and they slept together at night. It took about 8 days to sort itself out as all 3 went for the new girl. Whether it would have been over sooner if they'd all been together and just got on with it, I'll never know. But at least your 2 older girls can't pick on all 6 newbies at once. Hope all goes well for you.

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the newbies are hens, yes

 

The idea is that they all live in the new house together and we can keep the eglu for future use.

 

Really apprehensive this morning for some reason. :?

 

We have a 4m x 3m enclosure and the new house is on 3ft legs so they can use all the ground-space - just can't figure out a way to divide this pen up in case they fight.

 

Is the "putting into the house at night" the best way ?

 

Should we put our 2 into the new house tonight ? Or all of them in tomorrow ?

 

eek !!!

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New hens should be kept in a run for the first 5 dasys or so anyway. So they can learn where 'home' is and settle in. So yeah I would suggest keeping the new girls in the run for the first week with your old girls free ranging so they can see each other through the mesh and get used to each other before all going in together. It might be worth if they can fit in the new house to put them all in their together at night. Again this will get them used to each other and their smell, but they are docile at this time to not start going for each other.

 

Have fun!

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wellllllllllllllllll

 

waited till bedtime then popped them in with the 2 old girls...

 

OK till we let them out his morning and there was mayhem. Jean stood outside the henhouse waiting for them and ambushed the first newbie out - pecking lumps out of her :-( Beakful of feathers...

 

so we've divided the run up with some netting for a few days so they can get used to the idea...

 

cute little chocolate-brown egg in the run though.. forgotten how tiny first eggs were :D

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Quick update

 

Let them all out to range today - we live on a smallholding so there's plenty of room. Let the oldies out first, made sure they were at a safe distance, then flung open the run door.

 

Timid forays at first, then gradual exploring. Twinkle & Jean came to investigate and there was a bit of pecking, shoving and squabbling, but no bloodshed.

 

Test will be tonight when we put them back into the run at teatime (foxes start early here) May have to eat my words and put the dividing netting back up.

 

Funnily the newbies have discovered the power of vertical take-off which Jean & Twinkle can't manage. Put some perches quite high up (about 4ft from the ground) and they leap onto these then onto the roof of the coop.

 

Hopefully some photos to follow soon.

 

Thanks for all the help and advice - really appreciated

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