Need Integration Ideas, New Birds

[DellaMyDarling]

There's a local woman with a bit of an SOS "need to downsize" situation.
I'm looking at getting 3 hens total and one hen has two chicks.

The Mister is going to make me sleep in the barn for sure.
Hoping I can sell it as "we can't keep eggs in stock! I have regular customers and low supply!" Yeah right LOL

I've had great success integrating before, but that was when I had two temporary night coops for two flocks that arrived in their familiar groups. For two weeks they just hung out on opposite sides of the farm! One day, they mixed.
When I brought the Roo in, had a nice temporary set up made for him in a "see no touch" approach. That dang bird flew the coop. He had other plans, and insisted on being near them until they accepted him. It worked and no one lost an eye.


I am much more worried about integration now because we have a larger bonded flock, those two bitty chicks, and not knowing health history. I don't know if this owner knows anything about chicken illnesses, or what I could potentially be bringing into my farm.
I understand there should ideally be a seclusion period to watch for illness development. If I blocked off one half of my chain link run this could work as a "see no touch" but it's very close proximity to roaming free rangers and ducks. Is that even acceptable?
This approach would displace the ducks or place the chicks in a pen they could escape from easily without mama hen.


Does anyone else have itty bitty chicks in a chain link run? What did you do to secure it from baby escapes?
I'm not even convinced that this would be preventing illness exchange. Since my birds have been in that run, new birds could encounter new things and then be ill. How does fence separation even prevent illness exchange?!
Can't I just sneak the new hens into the coop at night? (I'm worried about those chicks with this method.)

 

[N F C]

Separating the new birds from the existing flock with a fence will not prevent illness or disease from transferring.

The new birds need to be quarantined in a removed area, away from your current flock. Even if the new birds appear to be healthy, it can take time for sickness to be readily apparent so I'd recommend keeping them totally separate for at least a month.

This is a pretty good article for explaining quarantine:
adding-to-your-flock.47756

 

[Ridgerunner]

You are in a tight spot as far as quarantine. Illnesses and parasites can be spread by then sharing food and water dishes, vectors like mosquitoes, grasshoppers, or grubs, or just floating on the air. If they peck at dirt that has droppings in it they can spread diseases and parasites. If they are separated by a fence only they can scratch dirt through the fence. If you wear the same shoes when tending both flocks or use the same buckets to feed and water them you could possibly spread something. Your quarantine is only as good as your separation and very few of us are capable of doing a good quarantine. We don't have the room or facilities. A lot of people add chickens anyway and don't have issues, but some people lose their entire flocks.

You are correct, either flock could infect the other. If the other flock has not had any contact with any new chickens for the past month they have basically been in quarantine, but that presupposes that the lady would recognize a disease or parasite and be honest enough to tell you.

Another problem is flock immunities. A flock can develop immunity to certain things and never show symptoms no matter how long you quarantine them, but they can still infect the other flock.

I consider quarantine pretty important for animals coming from and auction, chicken stock, or a show. They have been exposed to a lot of strange animals and you never know what they have been exposed to. If they are coming from a closed flock the risk is a lot less but it is still there. If her chickens look healthy you can take a chance, but there is a risk.

To stop chicks from going through a fence with large holes, you can use hardware cloth of chicken wire with small holes along the bottom foot or so. It's generally a good idea to bend 6" or so to a 90 degree bend and put that down as an apron to keep the chicks from going under the fence.

It sounds like you free range, hopefully your coop is fairly large. Dad had the same and the way he'd integrate chickens is to take them to the hen house and turn them loose. But he did not care if they slept in trees, some did. He did not have a broody with chicks to integrate either. If you decide to bring them in and how you are handling quarantine, I'd build a pen in the main coop and keep them there three or so nights so they get used to it as home and return there at night to sleep. Maybe a separate pen for the broody and her chicks, that could be tight quarters. With that much room I would not expect any serious issues. It's not like you have them shoehorned in a small coop and small run.

 

[DellaMyDarling]

Hmm, so both thought provoking answers with valid info, taking different approaches.

I do believe a true quarantine is absolutely impossible here and most places, besides just unrealistic for us.

I do have chicken wire, plenty. Ran out of the heavy gauged steel wire I was placing around run after my duck was taken THROUGH the fence. It's super hard to work with anyway, so I could wire up the rest of the run for them to use during the day. It's an important next project anyway as the chicks start to outgrow the brooder, I can place them out for the day. The teeny bantams scare me though...

I could steal doggo's wire crate to put inside the coop at night. That is a bit squishy, but three hens will fit with room to move wings...so ok just overnight? I'll see if my two week old chicks can escape the bars, I think they're too big now, so those likely are too.

So much to think about.