Poorly chicken

[Reikiranf]

Following the sad death of my darling Yum Yum last week we are now down to 2 girls, so I thought about getting a couple of new girls and was wondering if this is a good time of year to do it, as in do the short days & long nights make introductions easier?

 

I'm not in a desperate rush to get more but will do if the time of year makes it easier & less stressful for the girls, I daresay a lot depends on the individual girls so any advice or suggestions would be very much appreciated.

 

Amanda

 

ps I will be honest and say that since losing Yum Yum I'm really scared of losing Lulu & Mimi & I go out to them every morning in a panic expecting the worse

[beulah59]

We picked up three new hens on Dec 9th ... and it's been ideal for us. We've been able to use the greenhouse to house them until integrated into the main run, which I couldn't do in spring/summer. And they were able to free range round the whole garden so had plenty of space to get used to each other, before we have to pen them in to get the veg patches started. And I think the shorter days helped too, as they've not had time to get bored and fractious with each other.

 

The weather's been a bit much at times, mind!

[Daphne]

I think you should do whatever suits you best. TBH I don't think this time of year is better for intros, purely because its a bit less pleasant to be outside in all this cold, supervising. Also, there will be a bit less chook choice as many breeders gear up for Spring hatching. Try not to worry too much about your remaining girls, just keep a gentle eye on them.

[joybelle]

I got three new POL hens in the middle of October and housed them in a rabbit hutch

with a run made by OH that was parallel to the big girls WIR. They stayed in there

for about six weeks untill one day when I was cleaning the WIR i decided to put them all

in together and was very suprised how well they all got on went much better than the

first lot of introductions I did a couple of years ago. None of my hens freerange so they didnt

have any time to mix before they all went in together.

 

Joy xx

[beulah59]

Mine took care of it themselves in the end, when one of the LS went to roost in the ex-batts ark ... I threw them all in together after that and it's been fine. The ex-batts are definitely the top of the pecking order, however!

[Olly]

I think it's not a bad time, because of the short days it's much easier to put them in together at night and get them apart in the morning. It's true that supervision will be chilly work! I integrated a new chook at exactly this time last year, and it worked fine.