
Great advice given above, good luck to you and Henrietta on your coop adventuresand relationship - with each other and future flock mates - going forward.
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Hello, Katy, and welcome to BYC!Glad you joined.
She may be an Easter Egger. What color are her legs?
My suggestion is to build a walk-in style coop with attached run and move her to the new setup then set fire to that structure she is in.
You can absolutely add new chickens!
Ideally, I would create a brooder space in the new coop that has hardware cloth attached to framing. Lots of people build coops with built-in brooders under the poop boards. You build them with small doors, about 2"x4" that only 3-4 week old chicks can fit through. You brood day old chicks with a brooder plate. When they are about 3.5-4 weeks old, you open the chick doors after letting Henrietta out of the coop and locking her out so the chicks can go explore the coop for a couple of hours and learn how to get back and forth from their safe spot in the brooder. Then let Henrietta back in to see the chicks. Even if she does chase them, they are zippy little things and can run back into the brooder. They will eventually just start roosting with her at night and once they start laying they will integrate and you will have a very happy Henrietta who will once again be part of a flock.
As for the predator issue, build a very large completely predator proof run attached to the coop where you never have to close the pop door between the coop and run. That way they don't have to come out. You can visit the Coop article pages for ideas. You can click on the My Coop link under my name and it will bring you to the article I wrote on my shed conversion. I have a black bear among the normal cast of characters that could kill my birds. I've never lost a single bird that was inside my set up.
Good luck and have fun!
Thank you so much for this wealth of info!! I definitely plant to burn this coup when we build the new digs! I am so relieved that I do have the option of giving her some company because she seems so lonely! This coup is a mess and I can’t even identify what is on the floor of it. It’s thick and deep whatever it is. Also she has one kind of food in a feeder... it’s Purina Layena layer crumbles. But I thought people threw some other interesting food items in but I don’t think I can because it will sink in to whatever this unknown floor substance is. I should have mentioned I live in Florida so predators are coyotes, raccoons and other rodents. Thank you again!!Hello, Katy, and welcome to BYC!Glad you joined.
She may be an Easter Egger. What color are her legs?
My suggestion is to build a walk-in style coop with attached run and move her to the new setup then set fire to that structure she is in.
You can absolutely add new chickens!
Ideally, I would create a brooder space in the new coop that has hardware cloth attached to framing. Lots of people build coops with built-in brooders under the poop boards. You build them with small doors, about 2"x4" that only 3-4 week old chicks can fit through. You brood day old chicks with a brooder plate. When they are about 3.5-4 weeks old, you open the chick doors after letting Henrietta out of the coop and locking her out so the chicks can go explore the coop for a couple of hours and learn how to get back and forth from their safe spot in the brooder. Then let Henrietta back in to see the chicks. Even if she does chase them, they are zippy little things and can run back into the brooder. They will eventually just start roosting with her at night and once they start laying they will integrate and you will have a very happy Henrietta who will once again be part of a flock.
As for the predator issue, build a very large completely predator proof run attached to the coop where you never have to close the pop door between the coop and run. That way they don't have to come out. You can visit the Coop article pages for ideas. You can click on the My Coop link under my name and it will bring you to the article I wrote on my shed conversion. I have a black bear among the normal cast of characters that could kill my birds. I've never lost a single bird that was inside my set up.
Good luck and have fun!
No she is not laying eggs. I can’t imagine she is in a super healthy state. I’m hoping maybe that will change eventually but I’m not going to get my hopes up. I’d like to just get her happy and healthy!Welcome to the BYC Family!!!
It looks like an Easter Egger chicken. Is she laying eggs?
I personally would build a different bigger coop... I'm not a fan of the wire flooring of a coop and I love my walk-in coop. Coops also should have about 3 square feet per chicken.
Depending on where you live, if it is winter time, you could research and plan for a coop build in the Spring.
Chickens truly need more than one in a flock. Since you know the others were picked off by predators, you will also want to make a larger run and research or ask us about predator proofing your run and coop.