Hi friends,
Agh. We really made ourselves a fine bed to lie in, here! Can you help with ideas?
We were down to one very lonely hen and decided to build our flock. We did it in the most haphazard way, and now we've got to have a a quarantine/integration plan.
Here are the details about the birds:
1 lonely Buff Orpington hen, 18 mo., ours since hatching
+ 2 EE chicks (one's probably a roo, we hope one's a hen), 4 weeks old, bought at the feed store and currently in a med. size brooder set-up with supervised outside time
...and coming Monday from the State Fair...
+ 2 brown leghorn pullets
+ 1 buff-laced Polish pullet
(the above from the same breeder, and...)
+ 1 black-laced Polish hen, from a different breeder
= 7 birds
The scoop on the Fair birds is that they've all been in the Poultry Barn with who-knows-what germs since last Tuesday. They looked very healthy when we saw them, then. We'll see them again Monday. They're paid for and we'll bring them home Monday afternoon.
Here are the available spaces:
- the Chicken Ark, out under the apple tree in the back half of our 1/2 acre city lot, holds 4
- the house - the brooder's in the office and the basement's a possibility
- the garage, where the coop is under insulation-related renovation
Here are the fundamental questions:
- Do we have to quarantine the four Fair birds from one another? They've all been in the Poultry Barn together and are from the same stock...
- Do we simply separate the Fair birds instead? I mean, for social reasons?
- Can we quarantine the four Fair birds in a space that will, in the future, be occupied by our one current hen, or does that defeat the purpose?
- How long do we wait to introduce who to whom?
- When can the chicks meet everybody and in what order?
AAAAAGGGGHH!
What monster have we created?
We've got until end of October before we get really hard freezes, I hope.
Thank you to anyone who has suggestions!!!
Peace,
Kerri
Agh. We really made ourselves a fine bed to lie in, here! Can you help with ideas?
We were down to one very lonely hen and decided to build our flock. We did it in the most haphazard way, and now we've got to have a a quarantine/integration plan.
Here are the details about the birds:
1 lonely Buff Orpington hen, 18 mo., ours since hatching
+ 2 EE chicks (one's probably a roo, we hope one's a hen), 4 weeks old, bought at the feed store and currently in a med. size brooder set-up with supervised outside time
...and coming Monday from the State Fair...
+ 2 brown leghorn pullets
+ 1 buff-laced Polish pullet
(the above from the same breeder, and...)
+ 1 black-laced Polish hen, from a different breeder
= 7 birds
The scoop on the Fair birds is that they've all been in the Poultry Barn with who-knows-what germs since last Tuesday. They looked very healthy when we saw them, then. We'll see them again Monday. They're paid for and we'll bring them home Monday afternoon.
Here are the available spaces:
- the Chicken Ark, out under the apple tree in the back half of our 1/2 acre city lot, holds 4
- the house - the brooder's in the office and the basement's a possibility
- the garage, where the coop is under insulation-related renovation
Here are the fundamental questions:
- Do we have to quarantine the four Fair birds from one another? They've all been in the Poultry Barn together and are from the same stock...
- Do we simply separate the Fair birds instead? I mean, for social reasons?
- Can we quarantine the four Fair birds in a space that will, in the future, be occupied by our one current hen, or does that defeat the purpose?
- How long do we wait to introduce who to whom?
- When can the chicks meet everybody and in what order?
AAAAAGGGGHH!
What monster have we created?We've got until end of October before we get really hard freezes, I hope.
Thank you to anyone who has suggestions!!!
Peace,
Kerri
