Introducing a foreign bird into coop. Need advice.

[SillySilkies]

Hi guys!

I'm not sure where exactly to post this, so I put it here. I have two sections in my coop to seperate the roosters. On one side there's Gandalph w/ his harem and on the other is Roosty (not an original name, but nothing really ever fit! LOL) w/ his Henny Penny hen. Well, Henny died of old age 2 weeks ago and poor Roosty is by himself. I have heard that chickens are "flock/herd/group" animals. I was hoping Roosty would be ok since he can see the other chickens (seperated by just a chicken wire fence inside and outside the coop). But I'm beginning to think that w/ the coming of winter, he should have a hen-friend to snuggle with. I can easily get a hen from the farm where I board my horse, so getting an older hen is not a problem.

Questions:

1) The hen I want to take has been w/ her own flock in her own coop. How do I go about introducing her to Roosty? Should I just put her in and stay with them and see how it goes?

2) I'm VERY worried about bringing germs and disease into my coop. How should I "clean" her? I have DE and can dust her.....should I give her a bath first in mild shampoo??? I would just die if bringing her in caused any of my chickens to be sick (I've raised these since day-olds).

I want to do the right thing and give Roosty a buddy b/c he seems lonely, but I want to protect him and the rest of my chickens, too.

What do I do?????

Thanks so much!!

 

[rosyposyosy]

why not just put them all together? if not, i would split half and half

 

[SpottedCrow]

If you were going to get another hen(two would be better, though) from the farm you'd have to quarantine her for at least a month away from all the other birds. That was she would be used to "their" germs.

Two roosters together could fight over the hens. If you wanted to give maybe 2 hens to Roosty from Gandalph's harem, you'd have to make sure that he could'nt see his rival and his missing ladies or there might be fighting.

 

[SillySilkies]

I definitely can't give Roosty some of Gandalph's hens b/c they can all see each other, although seperate. Gandalph would probably freak out trying to get to his "girl" and the transported hen would also freak out. They have all been together since coming from the hatchery as day olds. I just can't stress them out like that. The balance on that side of the coop is working just fine. No reason to upset the apple cart there.

Ugh! ONE month?? Where the heck would I put her?? I don't think I can make that work. (It's not my property, so it's not like I can just through up another temp shed for the new hen. The owner of the farm graciously lets me keep my chickens there. He's a great guy. I definitely don't want to push my luck.)

So, you don't think that worming the "new" hen, bathing and then dusting her w/ DE would be enough?