Found a hens& want to integrate her into our existing flock, have no idea where to start. Please hel

[novagirl73]

This hen has been living in the trees around our neighborhood. One neighbor caught her, as she entered their yard and her dogs cornered her. Thankfully the hen didnt become their new chew toy. The neighbor called me. We have a large coop& run ( that is more like a huge aviary) consiting of 10 1yr old hens. No roosters. Mixed breeds 2 RIR, 2BR, 2 Austrolops, 2 amerucanas, 1BO, 1 light brahma. All are extremely gentle and tame.
The new hen is atleast the same age, if not older. She looks like a mixed breed. Very tame and docile. She is in an old rabbit wire cage. I placed the cage near the run with her own food and water. Checked her for mites, she is clean. I am so nervous on how to add her to our flock, I have two small kids and it is hard for me to find extra time to "babysit" this new chicken. Any ideas/ advice would be very helpful. Thanks!

 

[GitaBooks]

That's awesome that you could help her out!

Because she is so tame, you may want to check that no one is missing their pets or layers in the area.

Then you put her in a wire pen near the others for a week or two. When they are use to each other you can open up the cage and let them mingle or else put her in their coop at night to roost with them and they will wake up together and may not be as aggressive.

Keep a close eye on them, as chickens are territorial towards chickens they see as strangers to the flock and may chase her or bully her.


Best of luck!

 

[novagirl73]

[VIDEO][/VIDEO]Thanks for the info. I have talked to all the neighbors and she doesnt belong to anyone.
I have read on there, that I should quarantine her for approx two weeks 100ft away from the coop. Once the two weeks is up, move her to a cage up against the coop so the flock can "meet and greet" without bullying her. This will help prevent transmition of " cooties," and ease tentions between the flock & new comer. I know chickens are social and would like her to be quarantined as close to the coop as possible. 100 ft seems excessive.Have you heard of this? My fear is that she will be shy when I move her out of quarantine and in a cage up against the coop. I atleast want the chickens to hear each other and get familiar to each others clucks. Any thoughts?

 

[GitaBooks]

Quarantine is very wise, and certainly is a good idea. However, I'm more one to take a chance to make the animals comfortable and introduce them sometimes sooner than suggested.

Maybe its not the smartest idea, but that's how I do it. You can choose whether to take the risk or not.

 

[GretaGarboFirst]

I agree with the 100 feet. It is hard but if your others get sick from rushing the process that is even harder! I do not agree with putting the chicken in at night because the morning after can be really hard on the new one. Couple of weeks side by side the some day time with all as you watch and check in on them. Then a late night integration on the roost. My daughter has had several integrated groups of chickens and this is her technique. Best of luck....keep us posted.

 

[aart]

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.

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

 

[novagirl73]

Thanks for all the great info! So far we are on day 3 of quarantine and all is well. I have not gotten an egg from the new hen...makes me wonder if she is significantly older. My next question is, if she is a "spent hen" will my flock of "youngens" ( 9months old) bully her? I am imaging a scenario where you have a bunch of kids living with a grandma

 

[Mrs. K]

The thing with quarantine is either you do it right, or you may as well not do it at all. Most backyard set ups are not able to do a proper quarantine. If you can't keep them according to my research, you need 300 feet away from each other, then you are not quarantining in the aspect of preventing wind carried diseases traveling from one hen to another. If it would devastate you to lose your flock, then don't add strange birds. If the bird has been examined and looks healthy, she could very well be healthy. If your birds have been close to the new bird even one time, well then quarantine is broken, and there is no poiint in going on with the huge inconvience of trying.

The possibility of disease is real, if you flock is valuable to you, either emotionally or financially, then do not add new birds. A lot of people on here have a closed flock to prevent disease.

Mrs K

 

[GitaBooks]

Thanks for all the great info! So far we are on day 3 of quarantine and all is well. I have not gotten an egg from the new hen...makes me wonder if she is significantly older. My next question is, if she is a "spent hen" will my flock of "youngens" ( 9months old) bully her? I am imaging a scenario where you have a bunch of kids living with a grandma

After a move, hens sometimes don't lay for a few days until they settle-in. You should be getting eggs soon.

 

[HeritageGoose13]

The thing with quarantine is either you do it right, or you may as well not do it at all. Most backyard set ups are not able to do a proper quarantine. If you can't keep them according to my research, you need 300 feet away from each other, then you are not quarantining in the aspect of preventing wind carried diseases traveling from one hen to another. If it would devastate you to lose your flock, then don't add strange birds. If the bird has been examined and looks healthy, she could very well be healthy. If your birds have been close to the new bird even one time, well then quarantine is broken, and there is no poiint in going on with the huge inconvience of trying.

The possibility of disease is real, if you flock is valuable to you, either emotionally or financially, then do not add new birds. A lot of people on here have a closed flock to prevent disease.

Mrs K

This is true, but like you said, you need 300 feet. This chicken has been wandering around, so it has already come close to the other hens. They have already been near each other, not much point in quarantine now.