Brought a new hen home

[kathye]

We have 1 black shoulder pair who are 2 years old. I incorrectly thought the female would not lay eggs for another year, but she surprised me in March with 9 eggs (none since then though). She would not set on the eggs so I tried putting them in the little giant with some chicken eggs I was hatching. They never hatched so I thought they were not fertile, but I accidentally broke one and a dead chick was inside. I knew I needed a better way to hatch these and remembered that the man who sold us the pair had a chicken hen in a pen sitting on the peaflow eggs and this is how he hatched his. Sunday a man at church agreed to loan me a hen that was wanting to set. He had her in a 4foot high pen with no top (ours is 6 ft.) she had never flown out,but 30 minutes after we put her in she flew out of our pen and tried to get into our chicken pen with the others. One of our great pryneeses alerted us to the escape and we put her back and into a large closed cage within the other pen. Now my problem is that she seems so unhappy alone. I have a brooder cage in the main chicken pen for chicks who are roaming around with the adults during the day so I thought about putting her in this cage within the main pen with the other chickens to see if she was more satified. Is this a good idea or not ?

Thanks, Kathye

 

[BullChick]

As bad as I feel for the visiting hen, she is an unknown. She could hurt the chicks running or around, and she might carry a disease. If disease isn't something you are worried about, I would suggest adding another hen to her cage.

 

[kathye]

That's a good idea I hadn't thought of. The plan I had would not allow her to get out of her cage, but just be in closer contact with the others. She would be in a closed brooder cage with room to move around.
Thank you for suggestion.