I need advice. Should I get another chicken?

[fluffhead]

hi ya'll,

i am writing this to help me think through a decision. i live in an urban environment (though we luckily have a large backyard). i have only two hens right now, one of whom was given to me by a friend - she is eight years old and doesn't lay anymore.

my two girls get along great. they are pretty much trouble-free, except that my laying girl is kind of squawky in the early morning.

i just found my dream hen nearby, and i can't decide whether or not to get her.

everything is so peaceful right now, i don't know if i am crazy to throw another chicken in the mix and make things a lot harder... do three chickens really change the dynamic in terms of a pecking order?? will they all squawk a lot louder and drive my neighbors crazy??

maybe i should just be happy with my current situation. or maybe i should get my dream hen, the Silver Laced Wyandotte!!

help.

 

[silkiechicken]

A third hen will disrupt the pecking order, but after quarantine, they should be able to get to know each other and get along fine in a week or two since they are adults. When you put them together, just don't "save" one from being picked on as they have to figure it out.

And of course you should get another chicken! Are any of us to tell you otherwise.

 

[MissPrissy]

Get 2 chickens. It will save you from having to integrate again and it will take the heat off of 1 chicken finding a place in the pecking order.

Make sure you practice good biosecurity and keep new chickens quarrantined away from your current flock to watch for signs of potential illness for at least 30 days.

 

[Scrambled Egg]

Get 2 chickens

Get several chickens then they will all have to have a new place in the pecking order!! Aren't we great enablers?!

 

[MissPrissy]

Enablers? Where?!?!

 

[Scrambled Egg]

None here in this chicken coop!!!

 

[tiffanyh]

Get 20 chickens--no, just kidding--well sort of.

I would get one more. Plus side is also that if you loose one, then you dont have one lonely chicken waiting while your new one goes through quarantine, etc, It can have one it is already bonded to. That is what I did with my 2.....not I have 15.

 

[2dream]

Quote:
Large backyard means you get to fill it up with chickens.

Enable - who, where, when. I have no clue what any of you are talking about. Addiction?

 

[EweSheep]

Of course we are all enablers and got a BAAAAAAAD addiction going on!

 

[rooster-red]

By all means do get more!