4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Katie]

Finally have got a maran bantam to go in with Meringue. They seem to be getting on fine and are already eating out of the same tray after being here half an hour!

But she is extremley flighty and wild as she was plucked from a field full of very free range hens! Do you think she will calm down?

All seems well so far, but they seem to be keeping their distance a bit, and she seems very skittish,

I think i just need reassurance as this is my first introduction for hens!

I'll post some pics soon. When I can catch her

Edited June 9, 2008 by Guest

[Chickvic]

I've never introduced new hens and have been very lucky with mine as there has never been any fighting! Sounds like yours have got off to a good start! Pearl was very skittish when she arrived and took longer to settle but she has, still not keen on being picked up but that might just be her! Good luck!

[chelsea]

hopefully she should calm down.

 

Our maran was accquired in similar circumstances - she was a proper farm chook (no fancy breeders) and was flighty and nervous when she came.

 

She isnt flighty now, although she is the least tame of my girls. But an excellent layer!

[Katie]

Ahhh i'm glad I have a feeling she's going to find it hard to sleep in the eglu tonight as she keeps going in the trees!! Certainly a wild one!

shes lovely though & is still very young so fingers crossed she settles .

I have 2 names in mind.....

Oreo - because she's black and white.

or Sprite!

What do you all reckon

[chelsea]

Sprite is cute....can picture that as a chicken name

[Egluntyne]

Oreo....very unusual.

 

I'm sure she will settle eventually, and follow the others to bed.

[Katie]

Bad news I knew I should have clipped her wings as soon as I had got her through the front door, instead of thinking 'i'll leave it a while'.

I should rename this post chicken run

I was about to go find some scissors as they seemed to have settled ok, so thought i'd clip her wings. But after a good 20mins looking for some scissors that my mum 'didn't mind me using' by the time i'd got back out there she had vanished....As she was nowhere to be seen in the run or garden I guessed that she'd managed to clear the 6 foot wooden fence. So i went outside to look for her down the next street and guess who was strutting her stuff down the road...

But after spening over an hour trying to catch her (fighting my way through bramble bushes and everything in between) - I have never seen a chicken move so fast! And I was so close to getting her at one point as she was roosted on a branch, but she took off again and ran across the main road into the opposite field, and there was no chance of getting her back from there as it's such a dense woodland and she had such a free spirit.

And now it's dark so she's probably found a nice branch in there, or in a foxes belly

I feel terrible, but I just could not catch her at all! I think she was destined to be a very free bird all her life. And if they don't want to be caught no matter how much corn and bread you offer, they won't.

 

Lesson learnt - cut wings before releasing into run!

[Cooks]

oh my! I hope she's ok.

[Katie]

I don't think i'll be seeing her again she was so tiny and quick.

I'll try and look again in the same spot tomorrow to see if she's scratching around there, fingers crossed but a highly doubt it

[Snowy]

Oh dear! I wonder if she has tried to find her way back to the farm? They reckon chooks need a few days to reacclimatise to where home is, hence omlets advice to keep them in the eglu run for 5 days. I do hope she turns up. Hopefully if she has been used to roosting in trees she will know to keep herself safe and turn up safe and sound tomorrow

[superjules]

Oh Katie, you poor thing. I hope you can find her tomorrow. Maybe she'll try to head back to where you got her from if it's not too far?

[Cooks]

lets hope she does as snowy posted and keeps herself safe I hope she finds her way back to you safe and sound tomorrow.

[Chickvic]

Hope you find her tomorrow!

[Tigerlily]

Hi Katie,

I hope your little chook is safe and comes home asap

 

Take care,

 

BWx

[Katie]

I was planning on keeping her in the run for a few days with the other one before letting them free range. We don't have an eglu run so the 'roof' isn't enclosed, but I didn't think it was possible for one to escape over a 6ft fence but it is! I'm going to get up at the crack of dawn and see if she is wandering anywhere. I really hope I get her back

 

She has now been renamed as The Phantom Bantam

[Egluntyne]

Rotten luck.

 

If she comes home, clip her wings, and keep her in the run for 5 days, it might just fix the idea of home and roosting in the Eglu in her mind..

[xScrunchee]

Any luck??

[Cooks]

I woke up this morning thinking 'I hope she's returned'... anything?

[chelsea]

she sounds like a very clever and quick chicken!

 

You never know - she might have roosted in a tree.

 

I really hope you find her....keep us posted wont you.

[Ange1]

Don't leave us all wondering Katie!

 

What's the news? Good I hope?!

 

Good luck

[Lewis]

Hope you found her.

[Katie]

Sorry, not been able to get on the laptop today!

We saw her again today in the same place as she was yesterday and so i took some bread to try and get her again. She looked so hungry though because she actually ran to me for the bread but as soon as I tried to get any nearer she was off again if only i could tell her i was trying to help! But i've left out a bowl of corn on the grass where she seems to roam, which she will hopefully find when she's hungry. I hate the thought that she's going hungry all because of me.

she then ran across the main road back into the woods, and she must have been crouching very quietly as we couldn't find her at all.

I have a feeling she's going to be back in the same place tomorrow, so third time lucky I hope. Going to try and get hold of a veryyy large net!

Pretty sure the neighbours think i've already gone mental with me running up and down the street... If only they understood!!!

[Egluntyne]

Encouraging news.

 

Can you get hold of a fisherman's net? They can be useful in catching reluctant hens.

 

Or could you get near enough to drop a towel on her and then grab her?

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I've only just found this thread . Poor you . I hope you manage to get her back.

[WitchHazel]

Katie, sorry to hear about this.

 

I hope you manage to catch her. A fisherman's net is a good idea. If you don't have one maybe you could post on freecycle and ask if someone could lend you one for a few days?

 

Alternatively, could you take your Eglu down there, put a trail of food in with a bowl of food inside? She might go in if you hide, and then you could close the pop hole. A bit far fetched, I know.