Adding two hens to current flock

BeccaSmith

Songster
8 Years
Joined
Apr 9, 2011
Messages
518
Reaction score
14
Points
133
Location
Meridian, ID
Hi! We rescued 2 hens last night, well I was told they were hens and that they were a year or two old, but I think one may be a roo since it is doing a side stepping dance this morning, but the two are so much smaller then our existing girls which are about 7 months old and the guy I got the two new ones from said they were a year or two old when I asked how old they were, he wasn't supper informative. Anyways, he had to get rid of them because he was having problems with stray dogs in his neighborhood so we took them in. I know we didn't introduce them to our flock properly, we picked them up after dark from the guy and brough them home and put them in the coop with the other girls and hung out for a bit to monitor behavior, there was some pecking going on but nothing to detrimental. Anyways, we know we probably should have seperated the two and introduced them slowely, but we don't have a set up for that, but now we are really starting to question our actions and are worried about if we could be introducing any diseases or sickness to our current flock and how would we recognize a sick chicken, hubby thinks we should get rid of the two as our current flock is or seems healthy but we have raised them as all natural girls with no vaccinations or medicated feed and wonder how suseptable they are to diseases but we just don't know what to look for because this is our first year. Have we made a big mistake and should we get rid of them? We don't have any way to keep them seperated.
 
All new birds should and need to be quarantined for some time to make sure they are not sick and will not kill your entire flock with a bug they have. Since you have integrated them already that is a mute note to you. Smaller? They may be Bantams thats all. Nothing wrong with putting them in the freezer or CL to get them gone.
 
Pretty sure the one is a young roo....he is a RIR and doing the side step thing. On another note, not sure why we are being paranoid since our chickens mingle with our neighbor chickens from a couple house down in a pasture that runs along all of our properties. There chickens come in our field and into our coop during the day, we have (or had) all hens and one of their roosters is pretty sweet on our girls...lol.

Also, how would I know what to look for if a chicken did have a bug or something? If I was able to separate them what would I be looking for and how would I know if things were in the clear to mingle them together?
 
Here a couple of pictures of them:

This one I think is the roo and I believe is a RIR:
85854_p1040228.jpg


This one I am sure is a hen but I don't know what kind:
85854_p1040229.jpg
 
Hoping someone will be able to answer my questions on what I need to look for if a chicken has a disease, bug, or other issue?
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom