Introducing a new hen to my flock

[lemondrp36]

I have 5 Isa brown hens. A friend of mine has a daughter that had 4 hens and a rooster. Something got into the coop and killed all but one. No injuries or anything to this hen. She is moving and asked if I would take her hen. Is this wise of me to do this? I've read that it's not advisable to introduce just one. They are the exact same age and size

 

[redsoxs]

Greetings from Kansas, lemondrp36, and

! Pleased you joined us! One chicken can safely be added. You might need to quarantine the newbie, however, to ward off possible contamination of your birds. Here's a great link on introducing new birds to the flock. Good luck to you!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2593-adding-to-your-flock

 

[Haehnchen1]

I have introduced a single hen before without problems. I also had a small flock. There is a partition that I can put in the coop so that the new bird is separate but visible to the flock. If your coop is big enough, you could section the new bird off with an exercise pen or if you don't have that, you could use a dog crate/carrier. I think that the key is for them so see each other first and then give them supervised visits. If they free range, allow them to all free range together and see how the hens react. If they're pretty mellow, try it in the coop/run area. I would definitely keep it supervised for the first week. She's going to get picked on in order to determine her rank in the pecking order, but I don't think that it's that difficult. Good luck, and let me know how it turns out

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Welcome to BYC! Glad you joined us!

 

[drumstick diva]

 

[BantamFan4Life]

 

[liz9910]

Welcome to BYC!