Lone Ranger Posted April 27, 2010 Share Posted April 27, 2010 Hi all, We lost our first chook this week and now her friend is looking all sad and lonely. I know that chooks are a flocking bird and need company, but before I look for a breeder I have a couple of questions ; 1) I've seen the fantastic posts about introducing birds with seperate houses etc, (eg Lesley-Jeans post) but does anyone have a suggestion on what to do on a budget ? 2) Ideally I'd like 2 more hens, but would 2 strangers at once be too much for our single one ? and would I need to keep them both apart as well ? 3) As I would be buying locally , and can pretty much pick my own breeds, are there any breeds that get along better than others ? (I have a Gingernut from Omlet at the moment.) Thanks again for your support. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
l_ouise Posted April 27, 2010 Share Posted April 27, 2010 I can only regurgitate (hmm, i don't think i've ever typed that word before!) the advice that i was given and how my new chickens turned out, but here goes: 1/ Separate housing isn't a necessity, more of a luxury in a convenient situation. It depends on how big the risk is to the new comers, so if you were introducing one or two new birds into a large number in an established brood that risk would be high whereas introducing several new hens into a small established brood would be less risky. 2/Your single hen would have the advantage of being comfortable in the environment and should be able to keep two nervous hens in check. 3/ I don't know about different breeds but i have found that the two chickens i got that were kept in large groups at the breeders have settled into the brood more quickly than the one that was kept quite isolated due to being one of the only remaining two. I figure the isolated one got used to not having to share etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
