I was given 14 chickens; "rescue chickens," I suppose, to save them from the stew pot. They are currently cooped by themselves, but their pen is not tall enough to allow them to have room to fly up to roost at night. I want to integrate them with other chickens asap so that they will have access to good roosts. The main roost house is directly next to the temporary pen that they're in now, just a few feet away. But if I let them go after having them just a few days, I'm not sure where they would try to go at bedtime, and I don't want to chase them who knows where! So, my question is, how long do I need to keep them in this new home before they will come back to the same spot when it's time to go to roost?
After 3 or 4 days they'll start to feel comfortable there but then they need to know what the building looks like outside in relation to other things. I pen them close to the door for a few days and then they're good to go.
To make sure that your new flock does not bring any infection or parasites to your existing flock you need to keep them separated for at least 2 weeks. There is quite a bit about this in the flock management section -- you may want to check out some advice about integrating a new group. It would be a shame to merge the groups too quickly and end up losing some of your old birds to illness.
Quote:Good point and take care of your old birds first and the new ones last and then wash up. Best not to wear the same shoes between flocks.
For mine, not even the amount of time it takes to hammer in the nails. They are all up and in my face while I'm still building it!
