A Chicken Adopted Us and Now We Want to Get More - Need Advice! Thanks!

[rcblumberg]

Hello!

I just joined and have been reading a lot here. Great website!!

I am looking for some advice. My partner and I have been talking about getting chickens for a while but
are moving into a new house soon so thought we would wait until then.

HOWEVER, a couple of weeks ago I was working in my art studio, heard a squabble outside,
ran outside and a cat was running through the yard with a white feathery thing. Cat dropped the feathery thing.
It ran under our deck. Long story short. The white feathery thing is a chicken! We made sure she wasn't hurt and then tried
to figure out where she came from but no one is our neighborhood has claimed her (I think she is a she?).
I am guessing she is 10 weeks old or so. Has feathery feet. She has totally adopted us, sleeping in our tree,
living on and under our deck. She is very sweet and friendly and follows us around. We have been giving her water and some organic pellets and organic food scraps and she loves grazing for bugs. I chase all the cats away but now she has gotten big enough that they aren't as interested.

SO of course we are keeping her. We are almost done with the coop and the run.
Hope to put her in it tomorrow and get her imprinted there. I've been reading TONS about how to build these things.

And then of course it is time to make her a not alone chicken.
We would like to get 2 - 3 more.

My questions is:
How do we go about introducing a few new chickens to an already established single one? I see answer for the opposite but not this way around. Any thoughts/ advice about ages/breeds and introduction techniques very welcome!

We are calling her Sonja Henie. There is her cute self in the photo above. Thanks much!!

 

[autumnhearth]

Hello!

I just joined and have been reading a lot here. Great website!!

I am looking for some advice. My partner and I have been talking about getting chickens for a while but
are moving into a new house soon so thought we would wait until then.

HOWEVER, a couple of weeks ago I was working in my art studio, heard a squabble outside,
ran outside and a cat was running through the yard with a white feathery thing. Cat dropped the feathery thing.
It ran under our deck. Long story short. The white feathery thing is a chicken! We made sure she wasn't hurt and then tried
to figure out where she came from but no one is our neighborhood has claimed her (I think she is a she?).
I am guessing she is 10 weeks old or so. Has feathery feet. She has totally adopted us, sleeping in our tree,
living on and under our deck. She is very sweet and friendly and follows us around. We have been giving her water and some organic pellets and organic food scraps and she loves grazing for bugs. I chase all the cats away but now she has gotten big enough that they aren't as interested.

SO of course we are keeping her. We are almost done with the coop and the run.
Hope to put her in it tomorrow and get her imprinted there. I've been reading TONS about how to build these things.

And then of course it is time to make her a not alone chicken.
We would like to get 2 - 3 more.

My questions is:
How do we go about introducing a few new chickens to an already established single one? I see answer for the opposite but not this way around. Any thoughts/ advice about ages/breeds and introduction techniques very welcome!

We are calling her Sonja Henie. There is her cute self in the photo above. Thanks much!!

Aww she is beautiful! Hard to believe no one claimed her! It actually should be much easier to introduce new chickens to just one chicken, as there is no established pecking order. Are you planning on getting started pullets or chicks though? What has worked for us is creating a separate pen for the newbies and letting them see each other side by side without touching for at least a week (providing they are not baby chicks, which you would have to wait to feather out, I don't let the young ones out with the big ones until they are 6-8 weeks old). There will be some skirmishes for dominance but it shouldn't be too bad.

 

[rcblumberg]

Yeah she really is so lovely and we were surprised we could not find where she came from. We went neighbor to neighbor and posted on Craigslist. Also she is out front a lot so I figured someone might walk up and say "Hey, that is my chicken!". But I feel lucky she is hanging around.

Thanks for your advice! So so helpful! We were thinking of getting started pullets rather than chicks. That seemed like the best route for us I think?

 

[candicecc]

She looks like an easter egger or an ameracana to me so you might have some pretty eggs in your future!!!

 

[autumnhearth]

Thanks for your advice! So so helpful! We were thinking of getting started pullets rather than chicks. That seemed like the best route for us I think?

I would agree that sounds best.

She looks like an easter egger or an ameracana to me so you might have some pretty eggs in your future!!!

She might be part but she has feathered feet. Perhaps a Favaucana (Faverolles-Ameraucana). Does she appear to be standard size? There are a few bantams that have both beards and feathered feet but not a lot of large fowl. Faverolles do come in white. Can you tell if she has a small single comb or pea comb?

 

[trailrider330]

Aww she is beautiful! Hard to believe no one claimed her! It actually should be much easier to introduce new chickens to just one chicken, as there is no established pecking order. Are you planning on getting started pullets or chicks though? What has worked for us is creating a separate pen for the newbies and letting them see each other side by side without touching for at least a week (providing they are not baby chicks, which you would have to wait to feather out, I don't let the young ones out with the big ones until they are 6-8 weeks old). There will be some skirmishes for dominance but it shouldn't be too bad.

X2

 

[yochickiemomma]

Awwwww...... someone has chicken fever. I caught the fever last spring. Shes very pretty. I'm sorry I don't have any advise for you. Best of luck. Don't forget to post lots of pictures. My husband grumbles because I have more chicken pictures than pictures of him on my phone. Lol

 

[yochickiemomma]

 

[azygous]

It shouldn't much trouble to introduce a few new pullets to this one. When I first started out, I was given a couple of three-year old layers. When I added a hen, I simply put her in with the other two, and things were settled within the first two minutes. Same was true later when I added six-week old pullets. When you're dealing with a small amount of chickens, the pecking order isn't complicated, so it gets settled very quickly, and usually without much fuss.

But introducing them slowly is definitely the best way to do it. Let them exist side by side with a partition and after they get acquainted, then put them together.