My husband's co-worker lost the entire flock to a coop fire except for 1 hen. She's roaming their property day and night alone because they have nowhere currently to house her. I have 12 chickens myself (1 rooster) and just integrated 7 about 2 months ago. Should we take this hen into our flock? I've always heard it's bad to integrate 1 by themselves but I'm afraid a coyote will get her. Please help, my husband and I don't know what to do.
I would expect it to take a long time to integrate her. You will probably want to initially quarantine her for a few weeks than plan on building her a temporary pen within your coop. I personally would keep her in there for a few weeks before attempting any mingling. You can always have another outside to move her to on nice days. She needs to been among the flock but not where she can be hurt. I would expect it to take 1-3 months to successfully integrate her depending on your flock dynamics and personality. After a few weeks I would start letting her out to see how it goes. Than lock her back separately at night for a bit longer. Don't rush things. Once she takes a beating it will make everything harder.
It may not be the ideal situation to integrate one hen into the flock, but under these circumstances I would certainly try. Sounds like you know how to go through the integration process, and you have a big heart! Good luck to you and this poor hen!
I think a way to speed this up, would be to confine her with one of your middle chickens, not the most dominant, not the least dominant chicken, away from the other chickens. This will force these two to become a pair, and a pair is easier to introduce to a flock than a single bird. This will also act as a canary bird. If your flock or if the new bird has a disease that the flock has no resistance too, it will become evident with just one bird exposed. Just remember, chickens won't be nice to a stranger. They don't remember who belongs to the flock very long. And a new bird can bring in disease. Almost always, feeling sorry for a chicken is a poor decision in adding that bird to your flock. It can be done, but it won't be easy or sweet. Mrs K
Put in a no touch pen for a week or so? They will figure it out after that. might be some chasing but they should accept her.
