introducing new chickens

Hello everyone. I have an odd situation going on with my blue Australorp Blueberry who is nearly seven months old. She laid her first egg just over 7 weeks ago and has not laid since. We did have to take her rooster buddy away a couple days afterwards as he finally started to crow and we can’t...

So I am relatively new to raising chickens, we got our first 6 last March. Early on one was taken by a hawk after I walked inside for only a few minutes. We took care of that by putting a top on their chicken run and moving the coop to the back which had coverage from the trees (We have 10...

Hey all! I have a bit a of a dilemma.. I currently have a 22 week old Silkie pullet in my chick/grower area with two 11 week old Araucana chicks all eating grower pellets, they get along well. I then have my main flock of 8 older girls on layer pellets. In the last week my Silkie has been...

After a week and a half of introducing my new one year old hens to my 4.5 month old bends through fencing I finally braved the introduction process. I had to put 2 older ones in a small cage to themselves for excessively bullying. One was pulling a beak full of feathers, and the other was also...

IMG_2835.mov We have a English blue Orpington Cockerol (about 4 months) that we got not that long ago along with two pullets. He had been overly aggressive with the pullets so we were trying to introduce him to the older hens and this happened. Both of them were bleeding and that went on until...

hello all, I am going to pick up a new hen from another homestead. This hen is the last left of a small flock. She’s currently reported as sad and losing weight, so she needs a new home and new flock mates. I have four hens and I am wondering what is the best way to introduce her to the flock...

I have 2 chickens. They are almost three months old. I may get another chicken from the same family, same age. They have not seen each other for about 3 weeks. Will they remember each other or will the pecking/attacking, etc still happen? I think three is a nice size but should I ask for a pair...

Hello! I have an ISA Brown rooster, an old chicken and 3 new ones that are 17 wks old so I'm giving the flock growth food but the new ones are getting bigger and bigger. The owner of a wildlife rescue center where I'm a volunteer gave me an amberlink pullet, or I think this is the type, I have...

I have two adult chickens, 11 month old, lovely, playful, excellent layers, and I have two 2.5 month olds. Raised all of them from 1 day olds. No rooster. To get them introduced, I had the two young ones live next to the two older ones but separated by chicken wire, since they were 1 month old...

We have kept hens for over 7 years. Usually we rehome the old hens after two years, and get a new flock from our local feed store. We have 8 new babies and two old hens who are still laying about every other day. We are planning on introducing the new girls to the old gals in 6 weeks or so. Time...

Hi, I just joined although I admit to lurking on the site in the past :) We moved from city to rural 3 summers ago. By the end of the first summer, we had 4 hens and 3 chicks. One of the chicks became our rooster. He seems very good at guarding the flock as he's always watching the sky. A week...

I have 4, 4 month old girls that I have had since they were chicks. I inherited a 3.5 month old Ameraucana 2 weeks ago. The initial integration was a disaster. My original 4 attacked the new girl and I ended up having to separate them. I split the new girl and 2 of my more docile girls for a...

Hi! We have three 2 year old hens (2 lacewings and 1 easter egger). In June we ordered three 1 day old Polish girls to increase the flock, but as it happens, one turned out to be a rooster and one female got taken by a fox. So now we are integrating 1 Polish hen and 1 Polish roo. We tried...

5 95 degree days in Michigan and one of my pair passed away. I can find 1 year old birds in the area but knowing how chickens are I wonder if: I get one, will they probably be okay together? If I get 2 or 3 it seems it would be a problem. The 2 would pick on my lone girl and the 3 may do the...