Patridge bantam chicken poorly foot?

[beckyfitz]

I lost Ginny to a fox this afternoon while they were free ranging in the garden, triad to scare it away but too late & it ran off with her.

Have put Molly to bed, she seems a little nervous poor thing. I know for her sake I will need to get a new hen & she will be lonely, but I really have nowhere to isolate a new hen, & I can't afford to buy anything. All we have is the cat box we brought them home in, but it won't be able to live in there, its too small.

Any advice gratefully rec'd, how do you think Molly will be all on her own, I won't be able to get a new one straight away.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I'm so sorry to hear about poor Ginny . I'm afraid I have no experience of introducing new hens, but you're right, you will have to get another friend for Molly. It may be worth getting two new girls while you're at it.

 

There are a lot of threads about introducing new hens but hopefully someone knowledgeable will be along soon to offer advice.

[Yolky]

I am so sorry to hear about your chook

[Cyber Chook]

Me too, so sorry, what sad news.

I'm quite new to chicken keeping and can't offer any advice, but I wondered if you might be able to put a new chicken (or two) in one of those rabbit/guinea pig runs, so that Molly can get to know them through the wire netting safely. Maybe you could borrow a run, or find one on freecycle if you use it?

Caroline

[Egluntyne]

Sorry to hear about the fox attack.

 

Could you borrow some separate accommodation for a short while?

 

Maybe you could modify the idea suggested **here**

[Redwing]

How sad, I am sorry.

 

I am far from expert but it would appear from other posts that three is a good number of chickens to keep so as ANH suggests above it may be worth considering two new additions.

 

Again a far from expert comment but maybe adding two would make for an easier introduction too? it may be hard for one to be added in to your other chicken's 'home territory' safety in numbers and all that? (no science behind that so I am happy to be corrected!)

 

As for introduction housing I think a couple of forum members rent out Eglus.

[enzed]

I'm in the same position - very sorry for you. I'm also wondering the same, don't have enough space to have a new hutch for new chickens, and thought about getting 2 so that Georgina will be less likely to pick on only one. And she looks so sorry for herself wandering about talking away, looking around as if someone is missing..

[munchkin]

Hi

 

I was in exactly same position as you about 6weeks ago. We were advised to just get one chicken as 2 new ones could bully the original one left. So we decided to replace Margot with one chicken, Prinny.

 

We are fortunate to have a large 12x12ft run with the elgu inside. So following advice from the thread that eglutine suggested we put :

 

the original eglu run back onto the eglu inside the large run.

 

1st night Barbara would not let Prinny inside the eglu so we used a carry cat basket (the ones to take cats to vet etc) for Prinny to sleep in.

 

In the morning we let Prinny out into the eglu run and Barbara had the large run.

 

As they only had the eglu run wire to seperate them they could see and smell each other but not hurt each other.

 

I put food bowls along the edge of the eglu run inside and out so they could feed near each other. Also fed them treats this way.

 

On 2nd night Barbara went to bed in the eglu and once she had settled down Prinny ventured into the eglu.

 

In the morning they were both fine but needed to be seperated as before during the day.

 

This continued for a few days, after day 5ish we let them free range together (supervised) and after approx 2 weeks they were friends.

 

I think that putting food stations around is the answer because the main cause of fights is food. Barbara would try and stop Prinny from feeding but once she could see there was plenty of food to share she was fine.

 

Hope this helps.

[Chicken Licken]

I introduced 2 new girls in April - started off with fenny (original girl) outside the eglu run but inside the netting area and the 2 new girls in the run. I gave her a removals box to lay eggs in and for a bot of shelter.

 

After the usual argy bargy for about a week they settled in and from having fenny in the nesting box overnight gradually built it up.

 

I just taped a bin bag to the removals box to waterproof it a bit and it was fine!