FultonFarm
Hatching
- Apr 18, 2017
- 6
- 0
- 6
Sorry folks - new here. I accidentally posted this in new member introductions....my bad but I have a big question:
Hello All -
We've been building a permanent coop over the past 6-8 months and it has been great. We incorporated the chicken tractor for some familiarity for nesting however we've since added a new nesting box. As beginners we didn't see that our hens were digging on one of the sides of the coop frame and a fox had dug on the outside and gotten in under the frame. We lost our "Gerty" and we were very sad. We got worried as we'd heard that our other girl, "Dot" might not lay as her environment has changed. It was always just the two for nearly 2 years and you never saw one without the other. They grew up together. We felt so bad thinking of her loneliness and have been investigating getting another hen.
Surprisingly Dot is doing OK and has continued laying so we are very happy however would like to introduce another friend for her and have another egg layer too.
I've heard so many different ideas on introductions...I've not really read about adding one hen to one hen? Pecking order and such makes me leery hence my reaching out to "the experts". We don't want to stress Dot out anymore than necessary.
I would be grateful for any suggestions or similar situations that have been successful.
Thanks so much!!
FultonFarm
Hello All -
We've been building a permanent coop over the past 6-8 months and it has been great. We incorporated the chicken tractor for some familiarity for nesting however we've since added a new nesting box. As beginners we didn't see that our hens were digging on one of the sides of the coop frame and a fox had dug on the outside and gotten in under the frame. We lost our "Gerty" and we were very sad. We got worried as we'd heard that our other girl, "Dot" might not lay as her environment has changed. It was always just the two for nearly 2 years and you never saw one without the other. They grew up together. We felt so bad thinking of her loneliness and have been investigating getting another hen.
Surprisingly Dot is doing OK and has continued laying so we are very happy however would like to introduce another friend for her and have another egg layer too.
I've heard so many different ideas on introductions...I've not really read about adding one hen to one hen? Pecking order and such makes me leery hence my reaching out to "the experts". We don't want to stress Dot out anymore than necessary.
I would be grateful for any suggestions or similar situations that have been successful.
Thanks so much!!
FultonFarm
....I do it while they are free ranging..Always a bit of fighting to establish pecking order...I would get a nice docile breed like an Orpington to add...
.....They seam to just go with the flow..
