New Jersey

[Lorraine436]

My husband found a chicken wandering around the local Dunkin Donuts parking lot. Apparantly she has been seen in the area for quite a few days. She was pecking at the garbage. This Dunkin Donuts is at a pretty busy intersection so we decided to catch her and take her home. She is a leghorn and is an aadult only we don't know how old. She has severe frostbite on her comb and was so dirty. We already have 13 chickens and had an extra smaller coop since we will be getting 8 more chicks soon. Other than the frostbite and her being dirty she appears to be fine. She is active, has no missing feathers and has a healthy appetite although she hasn't touched the vegetables yet. She will eat the crumble and cracked corn. I have added dewormer to her water as well as vitamins and plan on introducing her to the others this weekend (it will be a week). I also put vaseline on her comb hoping to add some moisture to it since it is dry and starting to crack.

Is there anything else I should be doing prior to introducing her to the rest?

Thanks for any and all advice!

By the way - her name is Dee Dee (Dunkin Donuts)

 

[jjthink]

Thank you for rescuing her - so kind of you and your husband.
You should keep her separated for a little while to make sure she's not sick (and thus possibly contaminating your others). This will give her a chance to adjust to so much newness and to build her strength. It may be best if they can see each other but not make contact for awhile, so they all acclimate. It can be very bad when a lone hen joins a flock, if they decide to be mean to her to put her in her place. This will have to be monitored extremely carefully for awhile when the time comes. All sorts of posts here on BYC about how to best introduce. Perhaps someone reading this can point you to the best of these.
Please keep us posted. Thank you again

JJ

 

[JerseyHen]

My husband found a chicken wandering around the local Dunkin Donuts parking lot. Apparantly she has been seen in the area for quite a few days. She was pecking at the garbage. This Dunkin Donuts is at a pretty busy intersection so we decided to catch her and take her home. She is a leghorn and is an aadult only we don't know how old. She has severe frostbite on her comb and was so dirty. We already have 13 chickens and had an extra smaller coop since we will be getting 8 more chicks soon. Other than the frostbite and her being dirty she appears to be fine. She is active, has no missing feathers and has a healthy appetite although she hasn't touched the vegetables yet. She will eat the crumble and cracked corn. I have added dewormer to her water as well as vitamins and plan on introducing her to the others this weekend (it will be a week). I also put vaseline on her comb hoping to add some moisture to it since it is dry and starting to crack.

Is there anything else I should be doing prior to introducing her to the rest?

Thanks for any and all advice!

By the way - her name is Dee Dee (Dunkin Donuts)

Check her very closely for mites and feather lice. You can give her a bath after she gets her strength up. I bathed one yesterday and blew her dry! Can you believe she just sat there and enjoyed the blow dry. It was crazy, I thought she would flap up a storm, but nope.

I would keep her in quarantine for several weeks though. There are many chicken diseases that have long incubation periods, and since this hen is a complete unknown, I would not chance the health of your current flock until you are sure. When quarantine is over I usually put them in a cage in the coop at night so that they all wake up together, but no fighting can take place. After several days like that, if most of the flock has lost interest in her, I go in at night and transfer to the roost. I also spritz some ACV around (someone told me it helps to disguise the "new" chicken smell since they all will smell a bit like ACV). I am not so sure about that last bit, but I figured it couldn't hurt. The only risk with the night introduction is that if you are not out there at dawn to monitor, a lot can happen. You could also just let her out of the cage after a few days in the coop. I have done that too with pretty good success.

 

[Lorraine436]

Check her very closely for mites and feather lice. You can give her a bath after she gets her strength up. I bathed one yesterday and blew her dry! Can you believe she just sat there and enjoyed the blow dry. It was crazy, I thought she would flap up a storm, but nope.

I would keep her in quarantine for several weeks though. There are many chicken diseases that have long incubation periods, and since this hen is a complete unknown, I would not chance the health of your current flock until you are sure. When quarantine is over I usually put them in a cage in the coop at night so that they all wake up together, but no fighting can take place. After several days like that, if most of the flock has lost interest in her, I go in at night and transfer to the roost. I also spritz some ACV around (someone told me it helps to disguise the "new" chicken smell since they all will smell a bit like ACV). I am not so sure about that last bit, but I figured it couldn't hurt. The only risk with the night introduction is that if you are not out there at dawn to monitor, a lot can happen. You could also just let her out of the cage after a few days in the coop. I have done that too with pretty good success.

Thank you for the advice!! I will definitely check for mites and feather lice, I also added diatomaceous earth to her bedding. Today she finally ate her veggies!

 

[sourland]

Flemington TSC has some very nice EE chicks that just arrived. They are labeled Ameraucanas, but we know how that goes. Please hurry in and buy them so that I don't.

Also a tub of what appear to be pretty nice (for hatchery bred) silkies.

 

[suzanne bauer]

I saw them yest! They are so cute! Prob is I only can handle two...You have to get a min of 6 from TSC. They also has buff orbingtons...so cute!!

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

*Must not go to TSC* *Must not go to TSC*

 

[Feathers n Fur]

I just called TSC in Flemington because I so wanted silkies but they do not have any. They have a tub of assorted bantams but could not determine what type. They just said they were of popular breeds. Washington TSC only has Red Comets right now and Flanders TSC has White Leghorns, White Plymouth Rocks, Cornish Rock, Buff Orpingtons, Red Comet, Ameraucana's and assorted bantams of undetermined breeds.


I know better than to say I will not get any this year. I get some every spring for the last few years. Good thing I built a large coop. Hubby thought the coop was too big for 8 girls, then I added 6 more, found homes for the 2 boys I ended up with and by my calculations of 5 sq ft per hen for indoor space I could get 8 more and still have room....

 

[sourland]

Trust me they are silkies - not "assorted bantams" although they may be labeled as such. They are basically clueless as to what they have.

 

[suzanne bauer]

i got two "assorted bantams" two weeks ago from there and they are sure feathering like silkies! They even have the wispy things on their feet! they are pretty cute....now fingers crossed that they are not roos!