hippy chick Posted May 27, 2010 Share Posted May 27, 2010 I have 3 ex-bats at the moment having lost 2 recently to illness. I think that i would like to get some more. Someone said that if i get more then i need to outnumber my existing flock. But I am really worried about integrating them . I understand that it can be a bit tricky at first. At the moment my hens FR all day long and have a large WIR thats about 40ft x 12ft. I would like to hear other peoples experiences of extending their flocks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lydia Posted May 27, 2010 Share Posted May 27, 2010 I think you should get some more if you want to. With the exception of Annie, we've only ever integrated ex-bats into our flock and never had a problem introducing smaller groups (3-5) to the larger one. As with any introductions as long as you take it slowly and keep the new ones separate at first then integrate slowly over time (we aim for between 5-7 weeks), you should be fine. We start them off in the spare eglu, then introduce via freeranging, then divide up the WIR with netting with the eglu on one side and the cube on the other, then take away the netting and put them all in together. We recently completed the process with our latest set of ex-batts who arrived at the end of March (5 newbies integrated into our existing flock of and all is well. Good luck with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
