Chicken bald back

[whoopsie]

Hi all one of my Ex Batts suddenly died yesterday (heart attack we think) leaving two other girlies in the Eglu. I know two is fine but only one of them lays and we need a few more eggs than that! I have never done an introduction and only have the one Eglu can anyone advise me please?

[Jenthelibrarian]

I'm sorry to hear of your loss, we recently had to have one of our girls PTS, so my sympathies.

 

We were left with one two-year-old hen and decided to introduce two new POLs to her. This has actually been a great success and far easier than we anticipated. If you have room for two, I'd recommend it!

 

We hoped the two 'noobs' would stick together and that Tilly couldn't take on both of them, or keep both of them from the food and water at once and this proved to be the case.

At first we had a wee bit of pecking, but we put in a separate food dish, and a bunny-style drinking bottle, at the 'house' end of the Eglu run, with the normal Grub and Glug staying at the door end.

 

The first night they all went in to roost together, no problem. I tried to visit regularly, with treats, and soon had the 'noobs' shyly taking mealworms from my hands.

 

I then went off for a week in the USA, leaving my husband to cope. He kept them in for a week, on my return they are all enjoying short supervised runs in the garden, and will go 'home' when they see their supper dish. Getting them all back in was my biggest worry

 

Tilly is her usual tame and friendly self, leaping into my lap for grapes. The new girls are still a bit wary, but will snatch a grape from my fingers. I'm hoping with better weather and more time they'll become more confident.

 

I do hope you have as smooth a ride as we've had, what ever you decide to do. Good luck!

[chickencam]

It is far easier to introduce two hens than just one, we have had four in and Eglu, we did have a run extension, but if only 3 of yours are laying and they get plenty of free ranging time then you should be ok.

[Olly]

Always a good idea to read the FAQs! There's a sticky here on introductions. If you do a search you'll find lots more threads.

[whoopsie]

Thank you everyone and yes Olly I had read the FAQs, I was more interested in recent opinions. I plan to introduce some more Ex Batts that actually came from the same farm - so they'd be about 2 years old. I'd like some more fancy hens but our budget has other ideas!

[Purplemaniacs]

I have had 4 hybrids in an eglu and have had no problems with the nest area they just shared.

 

It is the run space that is the issue, so if you have a large enough run I think four would be quite happy in an eglu.

 

You would need to rig up some sort of temporary accommodation for introductions as ex batts are quite feisty and the new comers will need time to get their strength back.

 

Chrissie

 

[whoopsie]

I'm in a dilemma now - the exbatts i'd get are from the same farm originally and have already been nursed by the rescue centre, but I saw some gorgeous POL hens today!