Cinnamon Posted September 1, 2008 Share Posted September 1, 2008 My 4 lovely new girls have been on the lawn in an Eglu for about a month,& this weekend we decided to start the intros to my exsisting flock of 4. We have a big hen pen & hubby has made a sort of foldable barrier out of wood & some plastic mesh. It moves,so I can get in & out to fill their feed, & we can store it away after use ready for next time too He has made a hole in it for the Eglu,which is on the old hens side of the fence,giving the newbies more space. They seem to be really enjoying the Aubiose & have spent much of the morning dustbathing in it There is a bit of posturing & squawking through the mesh, & I have just found 2 newbies sat on top of the fence as Fern,my bossy old girl, has flown into the new area I guess this is going to be par for the course, & I will just have to keep an eye on things to make sure they don't all start flying over to cause trouble! I am taking it really slowly & don't expect a full intigration for at least 3 weeks. A couple of piccys for you.............................. The fence,new girls on the right,old girls on the left, 'scuse the thumb! Dandelion & Weed on the fence,trying to escape the maurauding Fern Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WitchHazel Posted September 1, 2008 Share Posted September 1, 2008 What a lovely set up for introductions, Sarah! I'm really looking forward to hearing how yours goes, as mine is taking ages and it'll be interesting to see the comparison. Integration for us is going really slowly. They free range together all day and have been for a couple of weeks, but still Delilah keeps bullying the Littlees. We moved the Eglu into the big Run at the end of last week, in the hope that continual presence might stop it. The good thing is I dont have to come down and let the Littlees out now, I just leave the Eglu door open same as I do with the Cube. I found that a mid level barrier wasn't enough. We ended up having to build a fence (using something like chain link fencing, but it isn't chain link, it's for training flowers) from the floor almost to the roof to try and prevent the Littlees flying over. Even now Jasmine tries to roost on it sometimes. I'm giving Delilah the rest of this week to stop being such a cow. If she doesn't, then I think I'll have to shake things up even more: I'll move Scarlett in with the Littlees, giving them the Cube, and leave Delilah on her own with the Eglu for a while, before trying again. Good luck with the rest of your intros! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinnamon Posted September 1, 2008 Author Share Posted September 1, 2008 Its so difficult to know what to do for the best,isn't it? In intors past,I have given them a few weeks seperated,like I have shown above,then mixed them up at night,then just left them to it for a week. I figure that if there is no serious harm done in that time,then they will be OK. I have been lucky in my intros so far. This time it will be harder as I have the cube. Normally I would pop the newbies into the Eglu with the big girls,hoiking them out again in the morning. I have found that having them sleep together first really works,but you need to be up early to split them up again. But its hard to do that with the cube - you can't easliy hoik a hen out via the egg port I can see myself at the Cube door,trying to grab each hen as she come out,& splitting them into their appropriate pens But even then,the door handle is outside the pen.............................. Its either that or poppinf an extra hen into the new girls Eglu every night,& mixing them up that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WitchHazel Posted September 1, 2008 Share Posted September 1, 2008 Its either that or poppinf an extra hen into the new girls Eglu every night,& mixing them up that way. Hmm, that's something I might consider trying. . I could see me putting Scarlett in the Littlees' Eglu, not sure I could do it with Delilah. I'll leave them as they are for at least this week, and see what's going on after that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smiler Posted September 1, 2008 Share Posted September 1, 2008 Be really interested to hear how your integration goes as I have to do this at some point (but not for a while) with the cuties and the speckles. Might need to borrow an idea or two Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinnamon Posted September 2, 2008 Author Share Posted September 2, 2008 All seems well so far. Fern keeps hopping over the fence, & last night tried to sleep in the newbies Eglu - think I will just leave them to it from now on. There are plenty of escape routes for the new hens & if they perch on the barrier,no one can peck them,can they? Anyhow,they all seem jolly enough,so if one of my old hens pops over to visit,maybe its for the best Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
