have a lonely chicken girl - need advise

[lonelychicken]

Unfortunately something ??? we can all guess -got 5 of my chicken girls- leaving behind my heavy bottom girl Beyonce a partridge couchin. I had ordered and just received netting to go over and cover their yard the next day, but sadly - either they flew the coop and went gosh only knows where or something got them

now Beyonce is all alone. She is 3 months old and I want to get 4 or 5 more hens to keep her company.

Should I get chickens that are 3 months old or close to her age?
or will I be able to successfully introduce a younger group of chicks?
Do I have to quarantine Beyonce for a period of time? before I put her and the new chicks/chickens together?

I would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions of how to go about adding more hens to my flock of one

thanks so much

Gail

 

[MsBagawkbagawk]

I would get the younger ones. She will end up being the dominate one, but I think that is better than her getting beat up really bad.

Separate them for a week or so. It'll be easier for them to work out their differences that way.

Good Luck, and I'm sorry about your others.

 

[lonelychicken]

thank you for your reply - I was leaning towards younger birds too - as a group they should be able to hold their own if she gets bossy and hope fully they won't beat her up cause she is older.

Can I just make a smaller pen for her inside my chicken yard during the day? - to keep her separate? or do I need to keep her AWAY and truly separate in another area away from any contact or closeness of the new girls?

 

[MsBagawkbagawk]

No, you want to keep her so that they are able to interact, preferably through some sort of wire. That way, if they want to fight or peck at each other the one getting hurt can get away if it needs to.