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Tina P

Tina P

Hatching
Jul 16, 2015
3
0
7
Hi; my name is Tina & I have 5 beautiful Red Sex Link Girls that are now 15 months old. They were born the day my mother passed away & I have had them since 4/22/14 & they are my darlings. They are extremely spoiled and can do no wrong in my eyes. Unfortunately we lost my baby Girl "JJ" on 7/1/15; I thought she was egg bound & the vet did an x-ray which showed 3 screws in her. They attempted surgery; but she passed on the table. So now I have the 5. it was devastating to us to lose her. But we are heading out this weekend to get a couple more Girls - I know I have to ween them in when it is time for them to go out with the Big Girls - I do not want any jealousy or any injuries. Does anybody have any experience they can share on how to slowly introduce new comer babies to existing Spoiled Girls? Thanks & I look forward to getting familiar with this site.
 
Hello :frow and Welcome To BYC! Very sorry about the loss of your mother. :hugs And your little hen JJ.
With adding to your flock, if you are getting younger birds/ chicks it is best to wait until the younger birds are about the same size as the older ones and then have a long period of the two flocks being able to see each other but no touching, through wire seem to work best, ie dividing the coop into two sections or keeping the new/younger ones in a cage inside the coup for a couple of weeks to a month at least. The chickens will get to know each other and sort of work out a pecking order before actually coming in contact with each other. After a week or two, letting them free range together is a good idea and should help... It will take a couple of weeks to get the pecking order sorted out. There is a nice article in the Learning Center on integrating flocks you might like to check out, the part about actually combining them is after the quarantine section ... depending on where you get your new birds from (especially if they are older) you may need to do a health quarantine https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock and a nice article using the wire method of integration https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/introducing-new-chickens-using-the-see-but-don-t-touch-method
 
Hi Tina, welcome to BYC!

I'm so sorry for your losses, your mother and your bird. Losing someone you love is so hard.

When we introduced new girls to our existing birds, we used the "look/don't touch" method @Kelsie2290 describes above and it worked very well for us. There was still a little bit of squabbling but nothing serious, soon everyone was acting as though they had always been together.

Good luck with your new chicks and flock. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Nice to have you here!
 
Thank You so much for your advise; I am going to follow through on all of this. I am sure it will all work out. Have a great day & thank you.
 

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