we've loved our chickens for over 3 years now! one turned out to be a rooster and we had to rehome him. one went into early chicken menopause and stopped laying a year ago. and sadly my little boy put up the chickens last night without counting them, locking 2 chickens into the coop and 3 OUT! Out of the 3 lock outs only 2 were still there by morning. Maybe an owl or racoon had gotten the third or something. So now I am down to 3 laying hens and that's not quite enough eggs. When we got our first batch we carried the chicks around every day and they turned into fabulous pets. I really enjoy them. The question is now: how to add a couple more. Can I start over with chicks or would the big chickens kill off my babies? If I get older chickens, will it still be possible to get them as tame as my current chickens? Thanks in advance for your insights!
I think the breed of chicken has alot to do with their "tameness" so you could get an older tame bird which might be the easiest to integrate with your flock...chicks will have to be protected since, yeah, the older ones will most likely, peck on them...don't know your set up, don't know if you want to get chicks for your children to raise and willing to put in the extra effort, anything is possible I've heard that battery hens are often sold and still have many years left to lay - would likely be the most tame of all - and maybe alittle neurotic, but would have to reseach where to find them. Either way, try to get a least 2, because you should never introduce just one new bird into a flock, they'll all turn on it.
Sorry to hear that you lost a chicken. I would be absolutely devastated if I lost one of mine! We hatched 15 chcikens back in April and it took 4 months to realise we had NINE roosters! I found a really good home for 7, free ranging with 250 hens, but just couldn't part with two, so we had to get more chicks. I kept the chicks in a brooder for a month and then moved them into a segregated part of the coop and run, so they have been next to each other for the last two months. My main flock free range and I intend to let the 9 chicks join the flock in the next week or so because they are now almost as big as the main flock, which I believe is important to their survival. My neighbor introduced new chicks to the flock too early and the hens killed them. I think it would probably be best to introduce older hens this way too. Hope that helps, I'm new to chicken keeping so I'm learning as I go along. Best thing I ever did though, I love all my chickens and have 28 now!
I am still sick about Martha disappearing. We've had her for 3 years and when you only have 5 chickens you get to know every single one really well. I ALWAYS put up the chickens and horses myself every night. Only that night I was in town and my husband and 5 year old were putting up the animals. The 5 year old didn't check to see if all of them where in the coop and my husband didn't check to see if my son checked. One evening away ... I tell you I found somebody local that's rehoming 7 months old hens that already started laying so at least we can be sure they are all girls. We had to rehome our favorite chicken -a super sweet rooster named Baby- because he was a rooster. Don't want to do that again. So the sure deal will be good. They are all marans and we found those to be pretty calm chickens in the past. Plus we like the size of the eggs they produce. Should be able to pick them up tomorrow morning
