California - Northern

Tommysgirl.........sorry to be no help. I end up feeding a lot of local wild birds but have my poor birds penned & try to provide all their needs with supplemental fodder feeding. calf manna, oyster shell etc. I have to keep them all separated for breeding purposes. I do have some free loading free rangers but no neighboring chickens would dare to come on this property I don't think. I certainly don't have loose wild peafowl. I would probably think that was neat since I used to have them but lost them in a terrible fire years ago & never replaced them. The guineas are noisy enough.................. Hope someone else can come up with a suggestion for you.
 
Thank you everyone for the comments on my new hen, she really is gorgeous. I wish I could have a roo here so they could make little Tolbunt Polish babies.
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Further proof that chickens are a drug. ;)
 
Okay, so when I first got the hen home I let her in the chicken yard while I set up the dog crate inside the coop. This way, the chickens in the coop/run could see her but not hurt her while she was in the yard, as they were in the coop/run. I decided to let them out to see how they'd do together, and she got along great with all but one of them. They all acted like she'd been there forever...except Penny, my Speckled Sussex, who decided to be nasty and try to fight her. They jumped at each other several times, then stopped. Didn't have any problems in the few minutes they were together after that.
Well, now she's in a dog crate in the coop so they can't hurt her if they wanted to do so. However she is panting, HARD. She has food, and water, and is in the shaded coop but I'm worried that she is too hot. None of my other hens are panting this hard, I think it's because they're on the cool dirt. The coop doors take up the whole 6ish foot wall and they're wide open, but she's still hot. It doesn't feel particularly hot in there, but her panting says otherwise. Should I be worried? Should I let her out with the other hens so she's cooler, but risk a fight?
HELP. :(
 
I'd let her out, she's not getting enough air circulation. You could pen her back up after it starts to cool down. Unless there is a place you could put the crate in the shade on grass.

It's hot here too, although probably a few degrees cooler than where you are. So she's used to the heat, but was able to lay on the ground under the coop.

Maybe if you wet down the outside of the dog crate................or gave her an ice bottle.
 
I would also wet down the ground for her. I'm sure it's a combination of heat and stress. You might put out something like watermelon for the birds. It's a cool treat and eating is always good to distract the original birds from the fact there is someone new in town.
 

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