I live in a dense urban neighborhood in Portland OR. Yesterday, my neighbor comes knocking on my door, saying one of my girls is loose. Much to our surprise, it was someone else's hen running up and down the street. Apparently someone had been driving a truck with an open chicken coop in the back, and this poor girl must have fallen off. After much chasing (she was terrified), we put her in a temporary cage in our front yard and posted a message to Craigslist. As we only have two hens now (we can have 3 according to the city), I'd love to have an extra hen, and she is pretty too. My questions: 1 - How long should we wait before beginning to introduce her to our flock? 2 - What precautions should we take? I know we should let them see each other without coming into contact. Thanks for your help! As a new chicken keeper, I have found this forum invaluable.
OH how scarey for the hen ! Glad you can keep her......keep her seperate for a day or two.the cage within,but seperate with others..then they should be fine......... I just added some and it only took a couple of days ! Good luck with her......... she found a good home
Keep the hen very far away from your current flock for at least 30 days. This cannot be stressed enough. There are several current posts where new chickens placed in with the flock had major disease and chickens died. After 30 days and there is no sign of illness, disease or parasites you can pen her up in her own little area inside your coop where the other hens can see her. After a week or two of getting acquainted you can turn her out into the main coop with the others. There will probably be some squabbling but the pecking order will right itself rather quickly. Please take heed and do not expose your flock to this new bird any time soon.