Need more hens

[Bountiful Farmhouse]

Here is a picture of our poopboard with area underneath. Not a great angle, but hopefully gives an idea.

And you use that space under the poop board as your brooder? Great idea! Thank you for sharing.

 

[FunClucks]

I’m in Florida, although we are proabably still waiting closer to spring

Someone mentioned fowl pox. Just gonna say, since you're in Florida fowl pox is probably big down there because of all the mosquitoes. I"m in north alabama, and mosquitoes are pretty bad here too when the weather is good. There's a vaccine for fowl pox, which I didn't know about until after my chickens were infected, so it didn't do us much good. Luckily, symptoms for dry fowl pox seem to go away in about a month, and they generally don't have trouble after that. For my flock, symptoms were very mild, and it didn't seem to bother them at all. If it were wet fowl pox, I'd've been more worried. Since you're in Florida, your flock might already have it.

Just thought I'd mention it since we're talking biosecurity and chicks, and integration, and you live in Florida. I have an open air covered run/coop combo, and don't free range due to predators, so many of the diseases bourn by wild animals don't make it to my chickens. That one took me by surprise.

 

[Angelpc]

Can you post a pic of the brooder you use please?

We actually do have enough room, their run is 8x16which is in their own yard, around 4000 sq ft. We also let them roam into another fenced area, almost daily, which is about 1/2 an acre. I think we will get chicks tho. Keep them in a brood in our metal building, like we did with the first group. Then when they’re around 6 weeks old we were going to move them to their own coop that’s inside the run, next to the other coop. So they can see each other but not interact til they are around maybe 10-12 weeks when they are closer in size. We started with 4 because we wanted to make sure we Could handle, we’ve only ever had cats and dogs. We do love them so much tho, I’m really looking forward to getting more. They seem to be very happy healthy hens.

 

[Angelpc]

When you add more hens to the flock, no matter age try and do see but don’t touch time after quarantine. That will help the integration process to go smoother. I have heard that Rhode Island Red breed can be a little more on the spicy side when it comes to adding new hens but every hen is different so I can’t say if yours are gonna react good or bad to new hens

Our Rhode Island reds are full of personality. I think we are going to start with babies. Around 6 weeks move them into their own coop inside the run, next to the older hens coop, where they can see each other. Slowly allow them to integrate when the babies are about 10-12 weeks. Hopefully that will work

 

[Firsttimehens1234]

Our Rhode Island reds are full of personality. I think we are going to start with babies. Around 6 weeks move them into their own coop inside the run, next to the older hens coop, where they can see each other. Slowly allow them to integrate when the babies are about 10-12 weeks. Hopefully that will work

That sound like a really good idea, when you start to integrate the young hens make sure to add more feeders and some extra places they can drink water from.
Also if any of the hens should be unfortunate to get a wound take it slow and go one step back to see but don’t touch until the wound is healed