Introducing 1 hen, recommendations?

[Jgrice]

Hey there!

I have 4 hens that are all around 6
Months old.
I’ve had them for 2 months. I only have room for one more hen, but everywhere I’ve looked says you shouldn’t only introduce one. Any suggestions? She’s a 3.5 month old barred rock.
My others are Rhode Island reds.

 

[Mrs. K]

"I have room for one more...." makes me nervous. Because to add chickens to an established flock, you need a lot of room, more room than you need by a lot. The smaller the set up, the harder the introduction. And a lot of pre-fab coops maintain they can hold 6 birds, when they can't without very ugly chicken behaviors. So can you snap a picture? Cause this very well may be a bad idea.

The how to's: Do NOT add 1 strange hen to 4 hens. They will all know she is strange and attack her, and probably pretty ruthlessly. Instead, you need a separate place for the new bird, and take ONE of the old bird and put them together in this separate place. In the separate place, you need some hideouts, and two feed bowls that while one bird eats at one place, they can't see the other bird at the other one. There WILL be dust ups, fighting, and feather plucking - but it is one on one, and it should settle down. Fighting takes a lot of energy, one on one, the energy is pretty even, 4 on one, they will take turns and can kill her.

After two -three weeks -which is also a pretty good time to see if the new bird has some disease that the original birds will be susceptible to, you can start over, by adding the pair to the original flock. Again the run needs clutter, hideouts, multiple feed stations. It is a lot of monkeying around, but I find it very good, to change the birds places, put the original where you have been keeping the pair, and put the pair in the main set up for a day, so they can explore and get things figured out before the fighting, but only for a day or two.

Then add the originals back to the main coop as close to dark as you can get it. The urge to roost is about as strong as the urge to fight. And be sure and be down there at the first crack of daylight to open the pop up door.

It can be done, but it is the most difficult of integrations that there is in adding a single hen to an established flock. If this is your first year, I would recommend sticking with what you have. Get some experience.

Mrs K

 

[aart]

"I have room for one more...." makes me nervous. Because to add chickens to an established flock, you need a lot of room, more room than you need by a lot.

Same here!

How big is your cop and run, in feet by feet?

Oh, did you change your mind and decide to get two?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/introducing-two-young-birds-what-age.1372203/

 

[Jgrice]

Same here!

How big is your cop and run, in feet by feet?

Oh, did you change your mind and decide to get two?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/introducing-two-young-birds-what-age.1372203/

Haha yes I did, thanks for the help!