can we have chicken cousins visit our flock?

[Birdielee]

I had 3 adult hens and 1 roo i hoped to integrate into 1 tiny flock. After a week, i culled the roo. The 2 hens he came with settled down and became peaceful that same day. Then after a few weeks more, i culled the submissive hen who kept attacking my original hen. Now I have 2 adult hens. In 2 separate coops. Pretty ridiculous. They seem to be starting to get along a bit better when free ranging. Maybe I'll be able to house them together before winter. Sure hope so. So... adult birds can be a struggle.

 

[funnyfoshay]

I had 3 adult hens and 1 roo i hoped to integrate into 1 tiny flock. After a week, i culled the roo. The 2 hens he came with settled down and became peaceful that same day. Then after a few weeks more, i culled the submissive hen who kept attacking my original hen. Now I have 2 adult hens. In 2 separate coops. Pretty ridiculous. They seem to be starting to get along a bit better when free ranging. Maybe I'll be able to house them together before winter. Sure hope so. So... adult birds can be a struggle.

i invested in a large expensive hen house, but now I wonder how we will ever get any more hens...without getting a complicated integration plan. Geez, they make it look so easy and natural in all the youtube videos and then to have people judging on this page... there are humans allover the world living in worse conditions than my sister's hens.

 

[Mamatomany123]

i invested in a large expensive hen house, but now I wonder how we will ever get any more hens...without getting a complicated integration plan. Geez, they make it look so easy and natural in all the youtube videos and then to have people judging on this page... there are humans allover the world living in worse conditions than my sister's hens.

I successfully integrated 4 babies in with a flock of 7 hens. We did a see but no touch for 3 weeks. The babies learned to get out of the big girls way real quick. You can add more, just need to be able to dedicate a bit more time.

 

[Birdielee]

Don't worry too much. I agree, there are humans who live much worse than north american pets.

 

[Birdielee]

On the positive side, once you have a separate space set up, you can use it for chicks, a sick or injured hen, or for newcomers you need to quarantine. Or birds you just want to eat.
I found the same situation to be true with keeping fish. To have an aquarium, if you want to add fish, plants, shrimp, or whatever, you need 2 tanks. The display and the quarantine tank. Otherwise you bring somebody home, plop him in there, and everything gets sick 2 weeks later.
(This happened.) Everything died.
Not sure that sounded like "on the positive side" I'm enjoying the idea that i have a place to keep "others"

 

[Birdielee]

i invested in a large expensive hen house, but now I wonder how we will ever get any more hens...without getting a complicated integration plan. Geez, they make it look so easy and natural in all the youtube videos and then to have people judging on this page... there are humans allover the world living in worse conditions than my sister's hens.

After my few short months with these birds, I've thought maybe I'll let them get to 3 years or whenever they dont lay too well, then soup them, clean everything out real well, and start over with new chickens. Eat the roos and keep the 3 hens I'm allowed to by the town.
And do that over and over.

 

[ravensnow]

I’ve read through this whole thread, and I really didn’t see anything that was insulting. I saw things that you certainly did not like, but it was pretty clear to an outsider that the poster was still trying to help your chickens and their cousins. As in, it looked to me like everything you received was a serious response to your question or the situation you described. I looked at your profile and saw this was your first thread in about a year. Perhaps you’re just more used to a different posting culture if you tend to use different sites and social media?

Anyway, I’m still in the process of integrating youngsters. We got them at 4 weeks, quarantined them in our house until they were 6.5 weeks, had to set up an internal fence in the run to give them a space to eat and drink without being persecuted by my hens until they were 10.5 weeks old and were getting too big to slip through the little doorways, and now they’re 13 weeks old. Only in the past week and a half have we been able to see small progress like my hens not taking EVERY opportunity to chase the littles away from wherever they were hanging out. It’s been a slow process. I would expect a very similar situation if I tried to integrate adults as is happening while integrating teenagers. Universally, the whole thing is way easier the more space the chickens have. People with big lots that can introduce their two flocks while everyone is free ranging seem to have the quickest turnaround time on this process. My coop and run are designed to house eight chickens with 4 ft^2 per chicken in the coop and 10 ft^2 per chicken in the run, and the whole thing still feels very cramped for just five chickens to be meeting each other. Everything is much better whenever we let them outside into the yard for supervised free ranging, even if the hens are still trying to assert their dominance every once in a while. I do not know why things went so easily for you last summer. Perhaps they still remembered each other then but don’t now.

 

[Minky]

I certainly agree with everything the poster above said. No one was insulting or rude, and YES having space makes everything easier. Best to integrate young (4-6 weeks) after a week or two of allowing everyone to watch each other. put feed dishes back to back but thru the chicken wire seperator- so they are eating right next to one another.....make hiding spots for littles (spots big ones cant get into) that have food and water and shade... and make sure there is always plenty of food and water... and never integrate only a few birds if possible.

I HIGHLY recommend to everyone to watch TALES OF LIGHT on Netflix. Then if you have children - have them watch it. Everyone should see how the rest of the world lives... lets raise the next generation to focus on ending poverty and disease, not a generation who will consume, consume consume and forget about the marginalized out there.

 

[funnyfoshay]

It's really not good for them though. I'm not going to bash your sister because everyone has to learn somewhere and she may not know. But chickens poop a lot at night and if they are sleeping in the nesting boxes then they're sleeping in their poop. Make sure she has her roost higher than her boxes because that may be why they're sleeping in there.

Thank you. I have learned all these lessons, I broke my girls of this habit. sleeping in the box leads to pasty butt leads to egg bound leads to sudden chicken death. Almost happened. I have also read of some hen owners "getting away with it" with no issues. Maybe it depends on how fluffy the butt and the bedding type, other circumstances etc My sister read a fair amount she isn't going to change anything until she sees a problem herself that is just human nature. She is taking humane care of her hens with no health issues thus far. There are plenty of people who buy chicks at Tractor supply because they are cute and are completely unprepared- to me that is crazy. I know someone he had hens about 2 yrs before me, he recommended this website. He built his coop from plans on this very website. He was super happy and adored his hens . He had them for over a year, maybe 2. One summer day he forgot to let them out in the morning, arrived home in the afternoon- they had all suffocated in the coop, he had no window only air vents. "small" mistake. Dead flock. I have read a ton. 3 books, countless youtube videos, hours and hours of reading on this site. Not everyone puts in that much research or geeks out that much, honestly chickens are hardy but there is a reason they reproduce in large numbers. They are pretty vulnerable.

 

[funnyfoshay]

I’ve read through this whole thread, and I really didn’t see anything that was insulting. I saw things that you certainly did not like, but it was pretty clear to an outsider that the poster was still trying to help your chickens and their cousins. As in, it looked to me like everything you received was a serious response to your question or the situation you described. I looked at your profile and saw this was your first thread in about a year. Perhaps you’re just more used to a different posting culture if you tend to use different sites and social media?

Anyway, I’m still in the process of integrating youngsters. We got them at 4 weeks, quarantined them in our house until they were 6.5 weeks, had to set up an internal fence in the run to give them a space to eat and drink without being persecuted by my hens until they were 10.5 weeks old and were getting too big to slip through the little doorways, and now they’re 13 weeks old. Only in the past week and a half have we been able to see small progress like my hens not taking EVERY opportunity to chase the littles away from wherever they were hanging out. It’s been a slow process. I would expect a very similar situation if I tried to integrate adults as is happening while integrating teenagers. Universally, the whole thing is way easier the more space the chickens have. People with big lots that can introduce their two flocks while everyone is free ranging seem to have the quickest turnaround time on this process. My coop and run are designed to house eight chickens with 4 ft^2 per chicken in the coop and 10 ft^2 per chicken in the run, and the whole thing still feels very cramped for just five chickens to be meeting each other. Everything is much better whenever we let them outside into the yard for supervised free ranging, even if the hens are still trying to assert their dominance every once in a while. I do not know why things went so easily for you last summer. Perhaps they still remembered each other then but don’t now.

I disagree. The use of the phrase "horrible conditions" and "why would anyone buy a coop at Walmart" were harsh, unneccesary, classist and judgemental. If she meant it as a joke, it wasn't funny from my view. I think most of us have seen photos of "horrible conditions" for raising hens- my sister's store bought coop and suburban back yard are hardly "horrible". I can not control what my sister reads and does but some of us put a lot more time and research into our chickens- but for many of us there are limitations of time, money and interest. Many hen keepers discover their errors "the hard way" when a bird gets hurt/sick dies or is killed.