Flighty white star

[Serena Morgan]

Hey. I’ve had my white star for 2 days now and let’s just say it’s not going as expected! I knew white stars were flighty but didn’t expect her to be so afraid of everything too. Of course she’s unsure because she’s moved somewhere new. She’s 20 weeks and should come into lay soon. I have 1 other chicken as my previous one passed. My chicken is around 18 months and is just trying to display her dominance by mounting and making noise. I tend to be very impatient but am just wondering do I take the approach of just putting them together in the coop and seeing how it goes? I would prefer this way as I feel this will just be a good jump start. Also how do I get my white star to be able to be picked up? She comes to me for food and seems okay/slightly cautious around me but doesn’t let me pick her up and runs a mile, flying and squawking.

 

[rosemarythyme]

It can be weeks before she feels comfortable with you, and a lot of that depends on how much you let her approach you vs how much you try to push her to accept you. Best thing you can do to get her used to you is to grab a book and just sit quietly in the run or yard while she does her own thing, and let her decide when she wants to come over to explore you. When she comes over you can give her some treats and once she's consistent with that, you can start touching a little bit at a time.

She may never be fully okay with being picked up, but for me I just need them okay enough with being handled that I can do health checks and treatment if needed.

As far as how to integrate them, even with just 2 birds it's better in my opinion to take a more conservative approach and let them see and get used to each other with a fence in the middle for a few weeks, before letting to actually touch each other.

 

[Serena Morgan]

Great, I will be doing this weekend thankyou