Introducing silkies to my lonely hen

[Bobeep2019]

Great to have joined. I only have one red sex link hen she is 3 yrs old. And ruled the roost when I had my other 2 that just past away about 2 weeks ago, we had bad heat/humidity here in MN. I did everything to keep them cool and they just couldn't handle it. Anyway, I was given 2 silkies (hens) the other day. I'm being patient. We setup a dog kennel in the run with a separate wire run for them so SweetPea can see them, I took all 3 out in the yard, they wanted to meet her but she has a little attitude and went after them. I read up that it can take 3-4 weeks for the adjustment. She is a sweet hen and gets up on my lap and follows us around like a little dog I raised her and her "sisters" when they were only a few days old. Maybe a little jealous...and needs time for the adjustment, I really like the silkies, any input would be great! I just love my girls.

 

[Meg-in-MT]

Hello! Welcome to BYC!! I'm sorry to hear about your two girls. That is very sad. Good luck with integration.

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi and welcome to our community. Time, supervised interaction and a couple of feeding / water stations and things will hopefully calm down.

This is a useful link to take a look at - “How to...” guides. You may wish to consider including your location under your avatar (using the guide in the link above). You can use this link to contact members in your area - U.S. States

Best wishes

Pork Pie

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Hi &

Great that you could join us all here! Sorry to hear about the hens that passed away.

Lots of time is the key to integrating birds. Unfortunately some times too they do need to have squabbling to sort their pecking order out so everyone knows where they belong.

Good luck and enjoy your time here with us on BYC

 

[Bobeep2019]

Hi and welcome to our community. Time, supervised interaction and a couple of feeding / water stations and things will hopefully calm down.

This is a useful link to take a look at - “How to...” guides. You may wish to consider including your location under your avatar (using the guide in the link above). You can use this link to contact members in your area - U.S. States

Best wishes

Pork Pie

 

[DobieLover]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.
Sometimes it take much longer than 3-4 weeks for acceptance. I think that would be rather short. Lots of resources and space will help with a successful integration. Good luck.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

 

[Bobeep2019]

Thanks all for the input, patience, patience, patience. And thanks for the "how to guide" link and I'll get myself setup under the avatar. Can't wait till I really start getting into this. I found the link on google so was very helpful when I got my girls but never thought of joining up glad I did. So much out there and great feedbacks from other folks!

 

[BaaKaaawk]

I'm the black sheep here. I just throw mine all together regardless of ages, breed, etc. and let them figure it out. 20 years of chickening and I can honestly say I have never lost a chicken in an introduction. Beat up, stood on, head pecked... yes all of the above- but I guess I'm more of a naturalist and they do that for a reason that people don't comprehend. Nature isn't like people- they work it out. The only caveat is I have plenty of space and usually around 30 chickens... so they pecking order is rather complex, enough so I don't think they can even keep it straight sometimes!

Regardless, I'd listen to the people who have introduced small flocks over me in this case for sure- and WELCOME!

 

[fldiver97]

Welcome Nice to have you here! A couple of water and feeding stations, space, maybe something like big logs or plants to allow to get out of line of sight. I also scatter some BOSS on the ground so everyone is bust with treats and mingles