Solitary chicken - need advice

[beccauk]

Hi

 

I've Just got 3 new hens on Saturday 2 have already started laying , I got 1 bluebell, 1 copper black , 1 pied suffork . I'm wanting to introduce them to 2 amber links and 2 columbines. At the moment I have the run seperated like I did when I had got the columbines, but I'm not sure I introduced them the nest way as its took a year and half to get them together this only happened in July.

So I'm looking for advice from anyone that has experience and a successful method of introducing new hens.

 

I have a eglu at one end of the run and a wooden coop at the other and ideally I want to upgrade to a cube and have them all together.

 

Thank you for reading and any help

 

Becca

Edited August 26, 2013 by Guest

[paulad]

I would be really interested too as we r getting two new hens very soon and i have never done intros before

[beccauk]

Well I have only done one with the 2 columbines and I'm thinking I maybe didn't do it the right way, should you let them do a bit of feather pulling. I think I'm too soft with them

[Sandychick]

I have done a few intros now. Everyone has their own ideas on what is the best method, but I like to take a few weeks before they are all in the same run and house together. For me, having a separate house and run for the new ones is absolutely essential. Once you have this set up, there is no stress and time pressure on integrating them.

 

This is my method......

 

1. Keep the new hens in their run for about 2 weeks. This makes sure that they are all healthy and haven't got any disease that they can pass on to the existing flock. It also allows them to settle in to their new home and feel safe there.

 

2. Let the older hens free range around the run of the new hens so that they can become familiar with them being there. Putting treats on each side of the run also allows them to eat together, while being safely separated.

 

3. When they seem settled, and if they are old enough (about 18 weeks), let them free range together for about an hour (it can stress the new hens, so best to keep this short for the first few times). This is the scary bit. I always supervise this, but would only intervene if anything looks really vicious. There will be a bit of chasing and pecking and that is ok and normal.

 

4. just see how they get on, and increase the amount of time they spend free ranging together. Eventually, you will find they start to go in each others runs, eat each others food and start to accept each other a bit more.

 

5. After 2 or 3 weeks of free ranging together, and if they look reasonably happy with each other, try putting them in the run together and see what happens. If there is nothing too unpleasant, just leave them to it. If it seems too stressful for the new hens, separate them again, and just keep doing this each day and increasing the time they spend confined together.

 

It's a long way to go about it, but it has always worked for me with no dramas or unpleasant bullying. They are usually one big happy flock after about 2 weeks of being in the run together full time.

[Lulabellx1]

I agree, free-ranging really helped us. We have just introduced 3 new hens to our existing flock of four. 3 weeks on, they are sharing the same WIR and Coop.

 

I found that when they were shut in the run, they would get bored and the old hens would bully the new ones. There was also nowhere for them to escape to. Once out free-ranging, they would chase them a bit, but not actually hurt them.

 

My garden now looks like a bomb has hit it! However the chooks are very settled together now. I slowly reduced their free-ranging time so that they are now only free-ranging when I get home from work... as we used to do before.

 

I would recommend to anyone who works, that if you can take a couple of weeks off on annual leave... then this really helps things as they can free-range the whole time and really get to have the space to get to know each other.

 

[Egluntyne]

Some advice here in the FAQ.