Advice urgent rescued chicken

[Yemso]

Please can you help? We have 3 hybrid ladies so someone decided that when they found a chicken running round a field i was the person to take it. This chicken is a fair bit smaller than our girls but looks full grown, bedraggled, and ?pure breed? She is currently in our double shower with food and water whilst we work out what to do. So, please can anyone advise 1) given the size difference would you try introducing her to our three? 2) if yes, what do we need to do in terms of getting her pest free before hand 3) how best to introduce her and last 4) any idea what breed she is? Thanks so much for reading this far! Really struggling to decide what it best. Fyi if advice was not to keep her she would go to an animal rescue x

 

[Yemso]

Here she is

 

[slordaz]

Looks like a young cockerel to me, but there should be a quarantine for 30 days away from your flock before introducing him to your flock, during this time you dust or spray them for external parasites, you will also be able to observe the poop to see if has coccidosis, see if a vet will do a fecal float test for worms and internal parasites, and watch for a lot of the other diseases, you don't want to have to deal with say MG or any other virus that is infectious and would make your flock carriers for life especially when you have no idea where it came from. Could be simply that someone couldn't have a rooster and instead of finding a him or sending to freezer camp decided to dump him out in the country
@oldhenlikesdogs
@Wyorp Rock
@casportpony
@dawg53
@Pork Pie


correct me if I am wrong please

 

[featheredplanets]

Looks like a young cockerel to me, but there should be a quarantine for 30 days away from your flock before introducing him to your flock, during this time you dust or spray them for external parasites, you will also be able to observe the poop to see if has coccidosis, see if a vet will do a fecal float test for worms and internal parasites, and watch for a lot of the other diseases, you don't want to have to deal with say MG or any other virus that is infectious and would make your flock carriers for life especially when you have no idea where it came from. Could be simply that someone couldn't have a rooster and instead of finding a him or sending to freezer camp decided to dump him out in the country
@oldhenlikesdogs
@Wyorp Rock
@casportpony
@dawg53

correct me if I am wrong please

Agreed! Quarantine is very important! She needs to make it past that before integration.

Though I do think the chicken is a Leghorn hen, not a rooster.

 

[slordaz]

Agreed! Quarantine is very important! She needs to make it past that before integration.

Though I do think the chicken is a Leghorn hen, not a rooster.

Leghorns hens are skinny as can be as they are pure egg layers and come in plain white or plain brown, though it could be a mixed breed. if they are in the US, no idea of where they are

 

[Yemso]

Sorry, we are UK based. Erm. How do you tell if its a cockerel?

 

[Yemso]

Nevermind. Just wait and see if it lays eggs....... its not crowing anyway!

 

[Willowspirit]

I agree about the importance of quarantining him or her before you introduce him or her to your flock. But I mostly want to say what a cute little bird it is!

 

[featheredplanets]

Nevermind. Just wait and see if it lays eggs....... its not crowing anyway!

I think she’s likely someone’s hen who strayed a little too far from home. It’s very rare here in England for people to abandon pet poultry. But there are a number of poultry diseases floating around England, poultry keepers here aren’t as concerned (though they should be) about disease as American poultry keepers are.

 

[Shadrach]

I think she’s likely someone’s hen who strayed a little too far from home. It’s very rare here in England for people to abandon pet poultry. But there are a number of poultry diseases floating around England, poultry keepers here aren’t as concerned (though they should be) about disease as American poultry keepers are.

Poultry keeping regulations in the UK are a lot stricter than those in the US.
People in the UK are just as likely to abandon chickens as they are in the US. It's just the scale of poultry keeping in the UK is minuscule compared to the US so it's easy to be misled.