Adding a new chicken to a very small flock

[alanhugs]

Thank you Hishigata and Ivy for your responses,

Things are finally at peace in the yard. Separating them helped, the anxious hen was still a upset in the evening, but not nearly as bad, getting calmer every day. The following day both hens started laying again, a good sign that they are back in rhythm.

I spent yesterday building a second coop/tractor, so by bed time each pair had their own space to enjoy. Its worth having the second coop - the new two are a wilder temperament having been born with space on a farm, so once they are settled in I will let them roam, while keeping my "spoilt" rural hens in their little palace, safe from eagles etc. Also means if I get more hens in the future, I will have the means to separate and quarantine properly.

Learning loads every day. Tonight I am taking a break from building hen houses. I am going to sit back and just look at my lovely hens and enjoy them

Thanks agin for your help,
Alan.

 

[Ivytwilight]

Ivy:

My chicken's combs came in the same way; little nubs one day and then suddenly just before laying they got big and red. I think Salt has the largest comb I have ever seen on a hen. She is a sassy girl. I sometimes call her Napoleon since she seems to be trying to over compensate for her diminutive size with big attitude. Surprisingly she has been the most accepting of the new birds.

I like your dust bathing chickens photo. They always look so funny sprawled out in the dirt. The Dominique comb is so neat and pretty. I think I prefer them to singles or other larger head ornaments. Also meant to ask, are your chickens laying through the winter? I decided not to light my coop so they could live au natural but Salt is still laying about 4 eggs a week. Pepper stopped laying around Christmas and has been in molt since new year. I am not sure if that is a result of daylight change or not. I am not even certain how long molt should last. Do you use a light or do the girls just keep laying without it?

I like hardwood too. It is easier to clean up chicken accidents and cooking accidents too. The kitchen is actually a refinished pine underfloor. It was originally covered in ancient vinyl tile but with a little stain it turned out almost as nice as the actual hardwood floors in the rest of the house.

I live in Arizona, the Sonoran Desert. We moved here a few years ago from the Pennsylvania, with Lake Effect snow in the winter! Now that's a real winter. It is supposed to very warm here, compared to what I grew up in, but the last week we have had record breaking lows here! It has been in the low 20s or teens every night! It was 17 last night. I was afraid for the girls, because we only have two hens! We built their coop for extreme heat. It was 112 in the summer and is in the 100s constantly! So, their coop was not built for cold, and certainly not 17! The coop we built is only big enough for 4 birds max, very small. So, there was no way I could put a heat lamp in or light without the very real fear of fire! ( I even use shredded newspaper as their bedding Everything in that coop is kindling). I was so worried with just two birds to snuggle up they were going to freeze! I covered up the largest air vents with plastic and put a heavy blanket over the whole coop!
In the morning their water was completely frozen, but they popped out of the coop like nothing had changed. In fact they both have been laying an egg everyday, which is weird...usually Furbush is an every other day kind of gal! I worried for naught. Now, we ordered Dominiques because they forage well and they would lay about three to four eggs a week. Which would be a total of what, six to eight eggs? Being only two of us, my husband and I, we were looking for a chicken with a lower egg count. My girls give us anywhere between twelve and fourteen eggs a week!!! We give them away to all the neighbors. The sun sets pretty early here as well and I have seen no change in their laying at all. They are real work horses, or chickens ^.-. I don't supplement them with any light or heat and they have been fine and laying normal through the very cold weather we are having and the normal short days. I know next to nothing about molt other than it happens so no help there. ^^

Our little coop(the girls spend most their day out in the yard foraging) It it too tiny to stick a light inside so even if they wanted one no deal! The coop has since moved to the back of the yard once monsoon started and the flies came out.

The cute little eggs waiting for me this morning after the frigid night.

A chilly sunset in the desert! The cacti are very, very sad. Half our plants have died, but the hens have no issues with it whatsoever!

 

[Hishigata]

I live in Arizona, the Sonoran Desert. We moved here a few years ago from the Pennsylvania, with Lake Effect snow in the winter! Now that's a real winter. It is supposed to very warm here, compared to what I grew up in, but the last week we have had record breaking lows here! It has been in the low 20s or teens every night! It was 17 last night. I was afraid for the girls, because we only have two hens! We built their coop for extreme heat. It was 112 in the summer and is in the 100s constantly! So, their coop was not built for cold, and certainly not 17! The coop we built is only big enough for 4 birds max, very small. So, there was no way I could put a heat lamp in or light without the very real fear of fire! ( I even use shredded newspaper as their bedding Everything in that coop is kindling). I was so worried with just two birds to snuggle up they were going to freeze! I covered up the largest air vents with plastic and put a heavy blanket over the whole coop!
In the morning their water was completely frozen, but they popped out of the coop like nothing had changed. In fact they both have been laying an egg everyday, which is weird...usually Furbush is an every other day kind of gal! I worried for naught. Now, we ordered Dominiques because they forage well and they would lay about three to four eggs a week. Which would be a total of what, six to eight eggs? Being only two of us, my husband and I, we were looking for a chicken with a lower egg count. My girls give us anywhere between twelve and fourteen eggs a week!!! We give them away to all the neighbors. The sun sets pretty early here as well and I have seen no change in their laying at all. They are real work horses, or chickens ^.-. I don't supplement them with any light or heat and they have been fine and laying normal through the very cold weather we are having and the normal short days. I know next to nothing about molt other than it happens so no help there. ^^

Your coop is so cute. Did you make it? I live in Texas so my coop is also built for maximum ventilation (bought mine online). It has been cold this winter but only a little below freezing and mainly at night. I also elected not to use a light as an experiment. I keep a daily log of egg production including egg weight, diameter, and height. Salt has been laying like usual. Pepper stopped laying just before Christmas and around New Years I noticed an unusual build up of feathers around the pen. Now she looks silly with her beard and neck all raggedy as the new pin feathers develop. Hopefully she will be fully feathered and laying again soon.

The little flock is coming together okay. Salt will hang out with the small birds but gets aggressive when they try to steal her food. The little hens don't seem very scared of her anymore and sometimes fight back. Nutmeg even stole bread from right out of Salt's beak! Ha! Pepper has been less friendly and more prone to chasing the little hens, but she has been extra grumpy in general recently, possibly due to the molt? I am not sure what that is like for hens. If it feels like she looks probably pretty unpleasant.

The weather here is getting warmer and there was a record number of grubs when digging in the lawn over the weekend. Salt was so happy she was practically wagging her tail. Pumpkin and Nutmeg are still getting the hang of eating worms and bugs as we dig in the gardens. Hopefully your weather has gotten a bit warmer for the chicken's sake as well as the plants. I am glad your girls managed a cold first winter. Spring is not too far off now!

 

[Ivytwilight]

Thanks we like the little coop!! Yes, we did build it. We looked at coops online, but they were way too much! We have moved completely across the country, bought a house, and got married all in this last year. So, money is pretty tight right now. We wanted everything about the chickens to be cost effective! They, themselves are saving us a monthly bill on pest control services.
We built the coop for about $75 and painted it the same color we were painting the house! It was a fun little project to do together since neither of us had ever built anything. And it is still standing today. It made it through the monsoon like a champ! We are thinking about building another 6 foot section onto the run and trying to get TWO standard sized chicks ( listen to the advice of everyone on here and never try to just add one bird again) to add to the cranky girls. I'm hoping to get some Black Java chicks. It is an idea...we'll see. It is just so hard to have only two of the goofy creatures. I was thinking if I left the chicken wire between the already existing part of the run and add the other section so they can see each other, but not get to each other. Then introduce them slowly, maybe my girls won't be such jerks while out foraging with the new ones. As I said we'll see.
Our weather went from 17 to 80 degrees in two days, and then rain! I think the lady birds are as confused as I am, every morning something new.
Our birds also love to be involved in anything we are doing, from digging holes to replace the frozen, dead plants, to building barriers to keep them away from the house.
I don't know if I mentioned it here, but my girls started to eat the siding right off our house! (Always something strange with the two ladies) I started a thread about it and the final consensus was, the only way to keep them from the house was to build barriers! We put up a tiny garden fence along the whole back side of the house and had to build a huge planter for on the patio!

Here they were helping their papa build the planter, because they just couldn't stop themselves from eating the siding. >< (The hubby was not pleased about this turn of events. He's a good hubby though. He kept his complaints to low mumbling, stern glares, and never once mentioned the fact they might be more trouble than they are worth.) The planter was also built on a budget!

And yesterday I caught the little stinkers making themselves at home in the planter, but at least no more eating the house, right? They seem to be leaving the juniper alone too.

Have your girls been sharing a coop at night or are they still sleeping separate from each other?
And as a random side note, we drove through Texas on the move out here! It was our single longest day of driving and we were literally in Texas for 24 hours. You're state is huge! We drove through the rest of the country in about as much time as it took to get across Texas!

 

[Hishigata]

Quote:
That is a good looking coop for your first building effort. The pre-made coop was a splurge and now I am thinking of making changes as it is not exactly what I want. I have been contemplating adding a run as the current space is too small for four chickens, especially since the big girls still chase the little ones on occasion. A wire separation may be best as they adjust to living in a confined space together. I have placed Pumpkin and Nutmeg in the nest boxes and on the roost, but it just confuses them and they hop down to go play outside. I can't blame them, the weather has been positively spring like recently.

I have not heard of chickens eating siding before but they will eat the oddest things. Mine ate the glazing off of a window I was letting dry on the steps. I went in to get water and came out to chicken beak marks in the nicely smoothed glazing. Silly things! They are stinkers when it comes to gardens and will eat almost anything. I have resorted to fencing in all my gardens to keep the girls out. If they are not eating the plants they are digging them up looking for worms or dust bathing. I planted some marigolds and alyssum along the garden border last week and they have chomped the plants to flowerless stubs. They seem less interested in my evergreens so perhaps juniper will be safe. Your girls look like they are enjoying your backyard building efforts.

New hens will be exciting. It is that time of year again. Hopefully it will even out the field to have bigger size and numbers. Let me know what you decide to get. I would be interested to see how the slow introduction works with different hens. My big girls still chase the little ones but usually they all get along. Salt and Pepper just celebrated their one year hatching anniversary this week. I made them cornbread cupcakes and after they had demolished most of the treats the little girls got to have the left overs.




Salt and Pepper dig into their treats.





Pumpkin and Nutmeg arrived at the party a bit late but still got to eat some left-over treats.

By the end of the party Salt had "frosting" all over her wattles, beak and even over her eyes. She is a super messy eater but really enjoys her food.
Nutmeg is now at least as big as Salt but still avoids confronting her. I wonder if she realizes how much bigger she has gotten recently? She and Pepper still act like little chicks most of the time.

 

[Ivytwilight]

Aww what a cute birthday party! I love the cupcakes and it seems they did too. I hope everyone is still getting along swimmingly! Beautiful photos by the way.

 

[Ivytwilight]

Well, we decided to try again sooner rather than later. This time we got two chicks (no more just trying to introduce one and we got a breed which should end up around the same size as our Doms) and will go for a very slow introduction. I will be sure to document the adventure once they are big enough to start the process.

These are the two new little ladies we got two days ago. They are Silver-laced Wyandottes and hopefully they both are really ladies!

 

[Hishigata]

UPDATE:
I finally introduced the new girls to the coop (they are almost 5 months now!!). I tried the stealthy introduction by night method, and placed the girls on the roosts at around 1AM when everyone was too sleepy to make a fuss. The next morning, I opened the door to the run extra early and by 7:30 they were up, sharing a run, and there was no fighting. In the past few weeks the new girls have learned to make the coop their own and the old chickens seem less crabby about having the new chickens sharing their yard. I even saw Nutmeg and Salt sharing the nest boxes. I think the stealthy night introduction is a good way to introduce newbies to the coop. I tried putting them in an extended run together but it sent Pumpkin into hysteric fits which only drew her negative attention from the older birds. No amount of slow gentle integration to the pen during the day seemed to relieve the stress and pecking.

Since the night time introduction, the girls are getting along much better. There are still occasional scuffles but no squawking or feather pulling. Salt has even taken to giving her old friend Pepper a quick peck to keep her inline. I think the introduction may have shifted flock dynamics but overall it seems a successful integration. The new girls always go to bed in the house and their good behavior is rubbing off, as the old girls stopped roosting on the fence in favor of the house. Pictures to follow...

IVY: The new chicks are so cute! My girl Pumpkin is a golden-laced wyandotte and she is gorgeous and very sweet. She weighs 5.5 lbs already and was the earliest layer to date in the flock. Hopefully your chicks are both ladies and the introduction goes better this time. Pumpkin was timid at first but now she will fearlessly pluck food from the older chicken's beaks. Then she runs away as fast as her fat fluffy butt can run but she holds her own pretty well. Keep me updated.

 

[Ivytwilight]

Sorry for such a late reply. Step one of getting the girls together!

I have been taking it slow with my cranky birds. For the last couple weeks I have been bringing the SLWs out( in a box we made from scrap material we had left over) while the larger ladies were foraging. Furbush and Plouffe were fine with this, but the last two weeks I have been taking the babies out all day in the box next to the run. This caused a major up roar with both of the ladies. I figured they have to get used to them at some point.

I take them out in the morning and put them in the box next to the run. I would say the first four days I did this Furbush and Plouffe would flip out for a good hour, and then continue to be pretty loud throughout the afternoon, until they were let out to forage. This is week two and I can put the little ones in the box with minimal complaining from the larger girls now. Those first couple days I had to sit out there and feed them a plethora of treats just to get a few minutes of peace and quiet, now they only complain for a few moments before settling down. They both are still laying eggs everyday. In fact they have been quieter while the other is laying now that they have company! I take that as a good sign? Furbush loves to charge the box every chance she has though. I was planning to, next week, move the little ones into the run extension with chicken wire still between the two pairs. I hope it won't make too much of a difference, but then again I'll probably have the same fight on my hands.

I hope my Silver Lace Wyandottes also turn out to be pretty little things...mine are not shy with us. They are far more friendly than I remember the Dominique girls being at the same age. They don't back down either! Both of them will charge right back at Furbush when she makes a run at them. I do have a concern about them though...and that is they are starting to look very different from each other!

Above is Skaggs, she is smaller than Stubbs and a lot darker. Her lacing is nowhere near as pronounced. I am pretty sure she is a pullet.

And this is Stubbs! As you can see "she" is a lot lighter than her sister and has so much lacing! "She" is also slightly larger. I hope, HOPE that she is actually a very pretty pullet and not a little roo. If she is a roo then I will have the same exact problem of trying to introduce one pullet to the two hens I already have! I know that won't end well, as I have already been down that road. I would be back to square one >.< Plus I would have to find a home for them. (Oh the frustration!!) They both already have waddles which I also find concerning, as I don't remember my Doms getting those so young, but both their combs are very, very small. They are around 6 weeks old...abouts. Only time will tell I suppose.

Both the "girls" running around the yard for a bit. Stubbs in the back, Skaggs in the front.

We let them run around a bit together for the first time tonight. Plouffe and Furbush both got a peck or two in on the small ones before our Otto dog had enough of the domestic violence and put himself, literally, between the pair to keep the peace.
(Just as a side note our yard was completely barren when we moved in several months ago and all the trees and plants we put in, so they are tiny, tiny!! And we live in the desert so yes the yard is supposed to be sand and dirt! I realized after showing some photos to be people back east and having them comment on the lack of grass I might have to defend our desert landscaping Why fight mother nature? Hey in five years it will look amazing!)

I hope to eventually leave the SLWs in the run extension with a small, makeshift coop until they are large enough to introduce to the hens without the danger of the poor things being unable to defend themselves. I worry because of the Bark Scorpions. I've killed four already this spring and our male kitty was stung in the paw! So, they might be spending their nights inside for a long, long time to come. I hope I can get them into the run extension without all the noise I had to go through last week, but with my super cranky ladies I am guessing every step of this process is going to be an uphill battle.

Speaking of cranky birds, a just for fun photo of Plouffe in the desert garden checking out the new Chicken X-ing sign.

Sorry for the long post, but that is the progress I have made so far with the introductions, little steps at a time!

 

[Hishigata]

IVY: The new birds look to have reached the awkward but cute phase. It looks like your integration is going smoothly this time. My hens did well together in the yard, before being ok together in confined quarters. Sharing the house was a more challenging integration. My wyandotte, Pumpkin, is pretty feisty and also a big bird, much larger than the older girls. Now, she hangs out with Pepper during the afternoon and they seem to get along fine. It takes a while for the pecking order to be established, but once it is things calm down significantly.

Let me know how it's going. Did you determine the gender of Stubbs? Even if she/he is a rooster, you can leave him in until he and Skaggs are established. Hopefully that will make it easier on Skaggs. I re-homed a rooster once and he was not put out in the slightest by the change. As long as there are ladies around, he was happy. Hope all is well.

As promised pictures:




Pumpkin, Nutmeg, Salt, and a blurry Pepper enjoying sour cream together.






Pumpkin and Nutmeg foraging outside the garden. They love brussels sprout leave;
but once I chase them out of the garden, they make do with chick weed in the yard.