Lone chicken😞

[Mercyr79]

Hi. We lost two chickens to a bobcat today. We are heartbroken for so many reasons. We now have only one line chicken left. I’m thinking of getting a couple of hens from my neighbors flock so she’s not alone. We got our birds from her a couple of years ago. Would I still need to quarantine the new birds even if they came from the same place? I’ve never done this before and welcome any advise. Thank you so much.

 

[DLA]

Sorry you lost your chickens! I would say it's always a good idea to quarantine new birds unless they are ranging over the same areas and interacting with each other regularly already. Better to quarantine and be safe than end up dealing with illness on top of what you've already had to deal with.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Best to quarantine in all cases, however if the neighbor is very close by or you occasionally visit one another's property there's a decent likelihood that any diseases or parasites have already been transferred between the two groups of birds. Given that you only have 1 bird left I would probably skip quarantine in this case and take the risk of disease being transferred over having her alone for an extended period of time.

 

[Mercyr79]

Sorry you lost your chickens! I would say it's always a good idea to quarantine new birds unless they are ranging over the same areas and interacting with each other regularly already. Better to quarantine and be safe than end up dealing with illness on top of what you've already had to deal with.

Sorry you lost your chickens! I would say it's always a good idea to quarantine new birds unless they are ranging over the same areas and interacting with each other regularly already. Better to quarantine and be safe than end up dealing with illness on top of what you've already had to deal with.

Thanks

 

[Mercyr79]

Best to quarantine in all cases, however if the neighbor is very close by or you occasionally visit one another's property there's a decent likelihood that any diseases or parasites have already been transferred between the two groups of birds. Given that you only have 1 bird left I would probably skip quarantine in this case and take the risk of disease being transferred over having her alone for an extended period of time.

Thanks. Is the quarantine only to prevent disease? I’m worried about them hurting each other….

 

[Debbie292d]

Best to quarantine in all cases, however if the neighbor is very close by or you occasionally visit one another's property there's a decent likelihood that any diseases or parasites have already been transferred between the two groups of birds. Given that you only have 1 bird left I would probably skip quarantine in this case and take the risk of disease being transferred over having her alone for an extended period of time.

I agree with this! Our neighbor comes and locks up the chickens for us when we're gone and I feed her horses, chickens, ducks, etc. when she's gone. We could swap poultry back and forth fine. Anyone else though, nope.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Thanks. Is the quarantine only to prevent disease? I’m worried about them hurting each other….

Quarantine is strictly about disease control.

You would still need to do an introduction which is best served via "see but no touch" - sectioning off part of the coop and run (or having a separate set up in view of the first) for 1-2 weeks to allow the birds to get used to each other but not hurt each other.

 

[Mercyr79]

Quarantine is strictly about disease control.

You would still need to do an introduction which is best served via "see but no touch" - sectioning off part of the coop and run (or having a separate set up in view of the first) for 1-2 weeks to allow the birds to get used to each other but not hurt each other.

This one is tough. The only way we could do this is to keep the new birds in a dog cage inside the run/coop. We don’t have a set up to be able to separate them. The cage is too small and it just seems cruel to put them in such a small space.

 

[rosemarythyme]

This one is tough. The only way we could do this is to keep the new birds in a dog cage inside the run/coop. We don’t have a set up to be able to separate them. The cage is too small and it just seems cruel to put them in such a small space.

Photos of your set up, so maybe we can see where you can add separators in order to facilitate integration?

Some folks do just toss new birds in but they will likely fight, and you optimally would want a lot of resources (space, clutter, feeders) to help minimize any damage done.

 

[alinas2010]

I’m so sorry for your loss We also have a small flock and adopted one from our neighbor when he wanted to cull her, we did not quarantine her.

I know it’s not exactly the same, but we integrated that one lone hen into our flock last year. I thought maybe this experience could be of some assistance. Like you, we really didn’t have a set up to split off a separate space for her to do the no see/touch method. And I felt the same way you did about using a dog kennel to do it, but it was an option. So I used it as a tool, not the main form of separation. I made sure that I only kept her in there a few hours a day, maybe one hour in the morning and one in the evening, while the others were around her. Then i let her out by herself for some of the day in either the coop alone or the run alone. The alone time in both areas gave her a chance to explore. It gave her a break from the kennel and let her gain familiarity and confidence in her new surroundings without the chance of being bullied/fighting. Confidence in their surroundings is important in thwarting bullying. She also got chances to mingle with the others a few hours a day supervised. Anytime I let her free range or mingle in the run/coop with the others I made sure I could supervise to break up any bad fights. She got her own roost at night for a few nights then she started to roost closer to the others gradually. It was a lot of work but well worth it. Don’t be discouraged if it seems like it won’t work out at first. Integration can take a lot of time.