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

[annettec]

We have added two new approx 20 week old hybrids to our other 2 chickens one a hybrid and the other a totally laid back silkie.

We are letting the two old chickens aged approx 6 months free range quite alot and the new two we have kept in the Eglu and run to get used to their new surroundings BUT !!

each time we pop the old girls back in there is obviously and expected a bit of a fight !

We are spraying the old chicken (the Silkie is fine !) with water each time she has a go ! but not sure this is the right thing to do? She seems to be trapping them in the Eglu !

 

Should we just leave them to it and continue to let the old girls out whenever possible to give the new girls a rest.

 

How long will it take to sort out, i have a run convertor coming tomorrow so this will give them extra space ?

 

How long should we keep the new girls in for we kept the first lot in for a week but is this necessary ?

Any advice gratefully received !!

[jlo]

I am sorry that I don't have a great deal of advice as I believe that it would have perhaps been easier to have had separate accommodation when first dealing with the introductions. I am sure that someone will be along later who has more experience that I do. Good luck though!

[Egluntyne]

Some advice **here** about managing introductions.

 

The slow method is far less traumatic than putting them in and letting them fight it out, which is never easy to watch.

[legend21]

I let mine out to free range practically as soon as I got them, it stopped them pulling at their own feathers and they were more interested in the big wide world so not so interested in fighting

 

J

[annettec]

Oh great thanks i did wonder if letting them free range would be better whenever possible as the Eglu isn't huge so wished i had gone for the cube !!

Am trying to persuade my husband to build a walk in run as we have the room !!

Thanks again for the advice x

[Clare L]

Hi there

 

We have had our girls in their cube since Thursday and kept them all in together for a couple of days. After that we fenced off an area outside of the run door so that they get a bit of extra space and a taste of freeranging without the risk of them roaming off into the garden and refusing to come back!! They dont seem to fight at all when they have the xtra space. We are probably going to let them out into the whole garden tomorrow ...

[Newmarcell]

Hi,

 

We've recently introduced new hens to our flock, and even reading up as much as possible and taking every precaution, we found it rather challenging!

 

Definately read the info on introductions.

 

Something that worked well for us was sectioning an area of the run off for the new hens. This allows all hens to be in the same run, but not be able to get to each other! We have a Cube so used an extra end panel to partition the run. However, I did get this idea from a forum member who used garden canes to separate her eglu run into two sections.

 

At night time we then placed the new hens into the eglu, and it was relatively calm as hens tend to be more decile at night.

 

It's a bit of a 'faff' having to lift the new hens to and from the hen house each morning and evening, but it certainly helped for our situation. We did this until the new hens came into lay, and then they were all in the run together as new hens needed access to the hen house.

 

Hose pipe and a short squirt for bad behaviour also helped us.

 

We tried Ukadex but that had no effect (other than myself and OH gagging on it ) However, I have heard that it has had positive results for many forum members.

 

I would say that it took approx six weeks for our new hens to be fully integrated with the rest of the flock. At times it felt as though it was never going to happen! Keep going, and keep trying different tactics until you find something that works for your hens.

 

Good luck,

 

Newmarcell

 

[Staffordmum]

Bumper bits - can't recommend them enough!

 

Always worked for us ...

 

Rgds,

 

Pat & Steve

[annettec]

Thanks everyone

Have let them free range most of the day and things seem not too bad. the biggest prob is i trained my first girls to come when i shook some corn as left them in Eglu for about a week but these girls have had to be let straight out so are not yet trained to come to me so just pleased not being filmed as trying to get them back into the run when i go out is quite tricky and involves some chasing

Eglu extension is fitted now so hope the extra room will help. Have found that by letting out the bossy girl the new two leave the house and roam quite confidently, all just trial and error i guess.

 

Thanks again