Single rescue chicken..how to introduce?

[emilyweck]

I have a 5 week old chicken that I rescued off of Craigslist. They were advertising 1 chicken and I couldn't figure it out. I asked and they just said they had too many. Not buying that story, I've kept her isolated and only found she has Wry Neck. Treated her and she's doing well. Now to my question. When is it time to join her with my 14 week EE pullets and my 2 RIR's 7 week pullets that are already cooped together? I free range them and introduced her today and one of the EE's pecked her really hard so I grabbed her away. Any help is appreciated! Thank you.

 

[NancyDz]

I never put them straight in with the others. I put the new hen in a cage either inside or right next to the run of my other chickens.
I do that for a couple weeks, that way they get used to each other. Then at night I add the new chickens to the coop when they are sleeping. They wake up and rarely is there more than a few hen pecks....


Good luck!

 

[Bantam Bodon]

Yes, i would do it at night too. There may be some pecking but i dont think you can avoid that completely.