Down to one hen, how can I introduce new flock members?

[SeaChickens]

Started out with three hens, lost one to cancer earlier this year. Then we lost our hen Lotte to a raccoon today. Now we are left with just Pepper, a barred rock.

She has always been the top chicken in the flock and is very friendly and likes to be around people but I know she needs to be with other hens. In the past she has called out for the others when separated and it is sad to hear.

Today she was, understandably, quiet after Lotte was attacked and put herself to bed early. I'm hoping she'll perk up as time goes on but I'd like to start planning on adding 2-3 new hens.

Pepper is 3 years old, should I try to find other hens her age? I've heard it's good to get the same breed if possible. Would it be better to get 3 new so we have 4 total? When we had 3, the top two were best buds and the third was an outcast, but maybe that was just the case with this particular group.

Anybody have advice for introducing hens to one lone resident hen?

 

[aart]

How many new birds you get depends on how much space you have to healthily house adult birds,
....and can you set up a separate area in coop and run for integration of new birds?

How old the new birds should be depends on your reason for having them.
If you want eggs, I'd get younger birds for sure,
if you're willing to wait for eggs then day old chicks might be a good choice for several reasons.

There will always be a low bird outcast by the others, having an even number might help that.



Here's some notes I've taken on integration that I found to be very helpful.......
......take what applies or might help and ignore the rest.
See if any of them, or the links provided at the bottom, might offer some tips that will assist you in your situation:

Integration of new chickens into flock.

Consider medical quarantine:
BYC Medical Quarantine Article
Poultry Biosecurity
BYC 'medical quarantine' search

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact. Integrating new birds of equal size works best.

For smaller chicks I used a large wire dog crate right in the coop for the smallers. I removed the crate door and put up a piece of wire fencing over the opening and bent up one corner just enough for the smallers to fit thru but the biggers could not. Feed and water inside the crate for the smallers. Make sure the smallers know how to get in and out of the crate opening before exposing them to the olders. this worked out great for me, by the time the crate was too small for the them to roost in there(about 3 weeks), they had pretty much integrated themselves to the olders.

If you have too many smallers to fit in a crate you can partition off part of the coop with a wire wall and make the same openings for smallers escape.


The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide out of line of sight and/or up and away from any bully birds.

In adjacent runs, spread scratch grains along the dividing mesh, best of mesh is just big enough for birds to stick their head thru, so they get used to eating together.

Another option, if possible, is to put all birds in a new coop and run, this takes the territoriality issues away.

Read up on integration..... BYC advanced search>titles only>integration
This is good place to start reading:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock

 

[SeaChickens]

Thanks @aart! I appreciate the links, will definitely check them out. We have enough room in the hen house for three but were considering expanding to fit four.

Our run is fully enclosed with hardware cloth and is good sized but not huge, may be tricky to separate two groups of birds inside but my husband is also thinking of enlarging that, now that we have to face the facts of killer raccoons. We had free ranged them in our yard for three years without incident so Pepper is used to having lots of space.

We're not overly concerned with egg production, mostly keeping the hens as pets (though the eggs are yummy!). Can't do chicks right now since we have a new baby of our own and don't have the extra time and space indoors. Pullets could be a good option of I can find some.

Anyone else have an experience introducing new hens\pullets to just one resident hen?