My eco solution to rat problems

[Chickenladyrashell]

We have 6 hens already, 2 Lohman Browns and 4 Araucanas. The Araucanas came after our first two Lohmans and by comparison the Lohmans - Alice and Geraldine are Einstein, very intelligent and clearly higher in the pecking order but get on fine with one another. They did seem to take longer to settle with each other and even before we integrated then there was a lot of squarking and pecking through the runs.

On Friday we got 3 more Lohmans, Patsy, Eddy and Saffy who are all point of lay hens so are younger than our others who are probably about 18 months old. They are in a seperate coop and run and the others are close by and have seen them and we have gradually moved the coops and run closer so they are chatting to one another, no vocal squarking or pecking and are all fine. The new hens haven't laid yet but have completely settled, are eating, drinking, dust bathing and seem to get on well with our others.

Do you think I can move them over now with our older girls so they are all in together or should I leave it longer? 

[Cat tails]

On 5/1/2022 at 12:53 PM, Chickenladyrashell said:

We have 6 hens already, 2 Lohman Browns and 4 Araucanas. The Araucanas came after our first two Lohmans and by comparison the Lohmans - Alice and Geraldine are Einstein, very intelligent and clearly higher in the pecking order but get on fine with one another. They did seem to take longer to settle with each other and even before we integrated then there was a lot of squarking and pecking through the runs.

On Friday we got 3 more Lohmans, Patsy, Eddy and Saffy who are all point of lay hens so are younger than our others who are probably about 18 months old. They are in a seperate coop and run and the others are close by and have seen them and we have gradually moved the coops and run closer so they are chatting to one another, no vocal squarking or pecking and are all fine. The new hens haven't laid yet but have completely settled, are eating, drinking, dust bathing and seem to get on well with our others.

Do you think I can move them over now with our older girls so they are all in together or should I leave it longer? 

I would give it some more time. And since the restriction in the UK have been lifted, you might want to try a supervised free range first, to see how they react to each other when they have more space.

[mullethunter]

I would maybe try now but be ready to go back to separation if necessary. I have found in the past that hens that aren’t laying yet can struggle when put in with older ones.