Chicken Isolation?

[Lizz9311]

We have a soft/no shell issue that supplementing with various forms of calcium doesn't seem to be helping. We don't have a way of telling who is laying the eggs without isolating one hen at a time for a few days at a time.

My questions:

How do you recommend isolating a hen? Will this create issues when we try to reintroduce the hen back into the flock (if she's healthy)? Would creating an "isolation pen" right next to the flock's current fenced in run help alleviate any reintroduction issues that might arise?

Any other issues we should be considering that I haven't asked about above?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Den in Penn]

A pen next to the run, where they can see and hear each other, should create no pecking order problems. If the pen is big enough you could do two at a time more quickly cycling them through.

 

[TwoCrows]

It shouldn't take long for this hen to lay this shelless egg. So reintroducing her is not going to be a problem. I have kept birds in hospital cages for several days completely out of view and the others still remember this bird enough there is no aggression toward her.

 

[MissChikaDee]

I'd keep them in a pen/cage where they can still see each other. I had to separate one out 3 months ago for 2 days, a BR that was second in the pecking order. The first day she came back into the flock the other 5 hens chased her off. She still gets picked on and is the last to eat. I don't know if this is typical behavior, but it was my first experience with reintroduction