shrimper Posted August 15, 2007 Share Posted August 15, 2007 Sadly despite us de-worming both chickens, Gertrude's condition got worse. My wife took stool samples to the vet last week for analysis but by Monday she was clearly struggling so my wife took them both in. The vet said she had fluid on the abdomen and rang back last night to confirm the presence of campylobacter (sp.?) and suggested that if she hadn't improved by this morning then it would be best to have her put to sleep. This morning the poor thing was really struggling and so the deed has been done. Doris, our remaining chicken seems to be improving thanks to the medicine but is looking a bit lonely on her own in the run and seems to be looking for Gertrude. We are thinking that she needs some company, but has anyone got any experience of introducing new chicken(s). I wondered whether we would be better getting 2 new ones. Is there room in the Eglu for 3? Will the 2 new ones gang up on the older one? Help please! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jules. Posted August 15, 2007 Share Posted August 15, 2007 Sorry to hear your sad news. i have no experience of introducing new chickens to an existing one, so can't help you there, but I am sure someone will be along soon with advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lost-sheep Posted August 15, 2007 Share Posted August 15, 2007 aww poor u! thge eglu can easily hold three chooks we have 3 in ours. if you want to introduce them make a temporary home and run for the newbies right next to ur eglu that way they can see and get used to one another. keep em like that for a while and then put them together. dont hold me to that tho cos that is only based on what ive read! mayb buy fertile eggs so she can incubate them?? then she will have her own off spring for company! u can buy eggs on ebay but whether this is just 1 of my daft ideas im not sure... wait for other peoples ideas first.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shrimper Posted August 15, 2007 Author Share Posted August 15, 2007 aww poor u! mayb buy fertile eggs so she can incubate them?? then she will have her own off spring for company! u can buy eggs on ebay but whether this is just 1 of my daft ideas im not sure... wait for other peoples ideas first.... This is a VERY popular idea with the family! Has anyone had any success in doing this? Would love to take this further, how do you do it and where do you buy them from? What happens if some of the eggs turn out to hatch cokerels? How many eggs can she incubate and what is the likely success rate? How long does it take? So many questions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowy Posted August 15, 2007 Share Posted August 15, 2007 Sorry to hear about Gertrude. Doris needs to be broody before she can incubate eggs (ie parked in the nest all day and not laying). Gingernuts and pepperpots are not known for going broody so don't hold your breath! You can introduce new ones - probably better to add two rather than one as she will bully them at first. Integrating them does take time but it works eventually. Unfortunately some older hens can be more aggressive than others. No way of knowing until you take the plunge I'm afraid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gallina Posted August 15, 2007 Share Posted August 15, 2007 I would recommend adding two hens rather than just one. There is plenty of room in the Eglu. If you get very young hens, you will need to keep them away from Doris's reach (but preferably within her sight) until they get a bit bigger. It is quite shocking how a gentle friendly hen can turn into a vicious monster at introduction time. (You can try putting them together, just in case Doris turns out to be a gentle exception, in which case you are very lucky.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted August 15, 2007 Share Posted August 15, 2007 There's a thread here about introducing new hens http://club.omlet.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12688 I've introduced loads of new girls to my flock, and it works best to have a seperate home for the newbies at first, so they can see each other and get used to the idea before thrashing out the pecking order. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted August 15, 2007 Share Posted August 15, 2007 Sad news, Shrimper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreveryoung Posted August 15, 2007 Share Posted August 15, 2007 Sorry to hear about Gertrude. Doris needs to be broody before she can incubate eggs (ie parked in the nest all day and not laying). Gingernuts and pepperpots are not known for going broody so don't hold your breath! You can introduce new ones - probably better to add two rather than one as she will bully them at first. Integrating them does take time but it works eventually. Unfortunately some older hens can be more aggressive than others. No way of knowing until you take the plunge I'm afraid. you can make them go broody!! how about placing 6-10 fake eggs in the nest box and once shes broody swap them, it didnt take long for my hen to go broody! worth a try and makes introducing them easier?? the other this is if you introduced 2 hens to the one they could gang up against her so maybe one on one if you choose that root? good luck on your choice! sorry to hear your loss Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelsea Posted August 15, 2007 Share Posted August 15, 2007 so sorry to hear your sad news Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shrimper Posted September 25, 2007 Author Share Posted September 25, 2007 Shamelessly bumping this back up to the top! Has anyone else got any advice re: dealing with fertilised eggs as this is very popular option in our house. What do you do with baby cockerels as we don't want any cock-a-doodle-doing at 4am? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aunty e Posted September 25, 2007 Share Posted September 25, 2007 If you get an autosexing breed, and you don't want to have to eat them at around four months or so, you identify the boys at a day old and despatch them in the kindest way you can. Alternatively, if you don't know/don't want to despatch at a day old, there are a few people on this forum, and river cottage who will take them off your hands when they start to crow and have them for sunday lunch. Sadly, there is no getting around the boy bird problem if you're hatching. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted September 25, 2007 Share Posted September 25, 2007 Aunty e is right - you really need to consider that carefully if you're thinking about hatching. It's like breeding other animals like cats and dogs - you need to be sure that you can find homes first. Perhaps not the best analogy as I don't think we'd want to consider despatching kittens but you get my drift. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted September 25, 2007 Share Posted September 25, 2007 Did i read that 60% of hatchings with be male?? Good luck with whatever you decide to do. Sorry to hear your sad news. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreveryoung Posted September 25, 2007 Share Posted September 25, 2007 Did i read that 60% of hatchings with be male?? Good luck with whatever you decide to do. Sorry to hear your sad news. my broody tried to hatch 6 egg and only one hatched! this has turned out to be a hen! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krysia Posted September 27, 2007 Share Posted September 27, 2007 I looked into it before hatching our chicks. Apparently it can depend on the parents if the egg comes form a young bird there are more likely to be a high percentage of males but as they get older there are more females. Not sure how true this is but I read it in 2 different places. If you get eggs from ebay (Like we did) you don't know how old they are so that doesn't help. We also got a pick and mix set so not sure what we have yet.We have 13 and although somepeople have told us we defo have girl legbars (meaning blue eggs yeah !!! ) we more than likely have some boys too, In which case Hubby will despatch and we will eat them. I don't know how to link to other threads but on ' 1chick when we went ot bed 8 this morning' there are some shots of my babies. They will be 1 week old this weekend ahhhhhh Rearing chicks is ace but you have to know what to do with any boys. Also our reliable broody gave up after a day and we ended up getting an incubator! Good luck and let us know what happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parmaviolet Posted September 28, 2007 Share Posted September 28, 2007 Just wondered if you'd consider introducing a couple of ex battery hens from the BHWT. Sarah Hall is doing a rescue this Sunday 30th. You'd need to ring her first . The telephone number is 07972 750684. Chooks are collected from Fontwell, it's not far from Chichester W.Sussex. We were going to get a couple as the beautiful Mini died in August & June is getting on a bit. But we got a bit impatient and picked up two rescue hens last Sunday from a place in Wokingham..they've got some left if anyones interested. Introducing new girls is a challenge, but we've done it before & are doing it right now with Kirsty & Alison ... It helps if you have a run extention & altenative housing for the eves/egg laying. We picked up a large rabbit hutch from Freecycle. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted September 28, 2007 Share Posted September 28, 2007 if a human gets campylobacter it can be really nasty - my OH spent a week or so in hospital on a drip having picked it up somewhere - possibly from some eggs (it was before we kept our own chickens) so be careful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
