Introducing new chickens???

[billyboy123]

Hey everybody, so my last post described my loss of a favorite chicken, and since then another one was killed. We found out it was a Raccoon and lets just say I quickly took care of the problem.... So now we are building a new run. We are looking to get 2 more pullets (8-12 weeks old). We have 2 chickens right now. We are heading out of town in exactly one month and I'm wondering if it is a good time to introduce 2 new pullets. Normally I would wait but, the chickens I currently have are very laid back. And.. they will soon (this weekend) be entering a new environment. so my question basically is, with the above circumstances, is there enough time for me to add two pullets? and the "breeder" I would be getting from has had the two birds separate for a few weeks now. Thanks in advance.

 

[Teila]

Hey billyboy123

I am sorry to hear of your loss

You might be pushing it to fit it in to a month. Even though the chickens have been separated at their existing location, I still recommend keeping them separated at your place for a couple of weeks at least and personally, I would prefer 4 weeks. The stress of the move may reveal an underlying condition of which they are carriers. I believe some chicken diseases can remain dormant until the chicken is stressed or unhealthy.

So, with two weeks quarantine [at least] and probably another couple of weeks doing the ‘look but not touch’ integration, you may end up leaving them just as they have been introduced.

However, that is just my humble opinion and others may think differently.

This previous discussion may also be of assistance:
Topic of the Week - Adding New Chickens to the Flock

Best wishes and good luck!

 

[billyboy123]

Thanks for the reply, Im also considering just building a temporary coop for a little while to keep them seperate. Would that work?

 

[Teila]

Thanks for the reply, Im also considering just building a temporary coop for a little while to keep them seperate. Would that work?

Yep, it sure would. If you ensure the coop is a good distance away from your existing flock, you could get the newbies soonish, leave them in the temporary coop and run until you return and then all should be good for proceeding with the introduction.

 

[aart]

True quarantine is pretty hard to pull off in a backyard situation.
Consider biological/medical quarantine:
BYC Medical Quarantine Article
BYC 'quarantine' search
The risks are yours to accept or not.

But integration by putting all birds into a brand new coop and run at the same time can remove territoriality from the equation.

Agrees the doing integration then leaving town(who will care for your birds while you are gone?) may not be a good idea. The birds may have settled together within a month, or they may not.

 

[kwhites634]

Hey everybody, so my last post described my loss of a favorite chicken, and since then another one was killed. We found out it was a Raccoon and lets just say I quickly took care of the problem.... So now we are building a new run. We are looking to get 2 more pullets (8-12 weeks old). We have 2 chickens right now. We are heading out of town in exactly one month and I'm wondering if it is a good time to introduce 2 new pullets. Normally I would wait but, the chickens I currently have are very laid back. And.. they will soon (this weekend) be entering a new environment. so my question basically is, with the above circumstances, is there enough time for me to add two pullets? and the "breeder" I would be getting from has had the two birds separate for a few weeks now. Thanks in advance.

Considering you're building a new run anyway, why not build it adjacent to the existing one, with a common fence, and put the new pullets in there? Essentially, that's what I did, & it worked out great. When it got warm enough last spring I put some too-big-for-the-brooder month old youngins in an empty run adjacent to the run for the other coop. They got to know the older birds through the common fence, but the others couldn't hurt them. When the young ones were big enough to be safely integrated, there was very little problem; nothing serious. Actually, it literally took the rooster about 10 seconds to mount on of the newbies.