night time roost addition...questions..

[savingpurple]

I am in the process of trying toget the lone hen of my flock reintroduced. Not going so well, but could be worse.

couple questions?

IF, on my vacation, try after 2 weeks of her crated but with the other hens, how do I do the night time roost addition I have been told to try?

In detail if possible....

Are they that much asleep, they don't know what is going on? Do I just sit her up there? Won't me squeezing one hen in, make the others wake up?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[saladin]

Introducing at night is a great idea and generally works well.

It's not that they aren't awake. Chickens, unlike ducks, do not see well in the dark. This is why those of us that Free-range catch our chickens at night when they are roosting in the trees. Do not turn on any lights when introducing on the roosting poles.

 

[savingpurple]

can I add her using a flashlight? Other wise I can't see...

 

[Noymira]

I just integrated 4 separate groups of chickens into one coop, here's how I did it...

My run is split, so I can close off part of it if I need to. What I did was bring the new group into one side of the run in the morning and let everyone see each other through the wire all day (sometimes a couple days and crate them at night if needed) then at dark I put everyone up in the coop together. The next morning they all seem to accept the presence on the new birds without many problems. I introduced two older hens, 4 young pullets and 6 young adult birds this way to a large group of pullets over the course of a couple weeks.

So far everyone is getting along well enough. There is a little chasing, and an occasional incident of pecking or feather pulling, but no major violence so far. Some of groups hang mostly together, and others blend with no problems. I've got 20 birds ranging from 16 weeks old to about a year and a half old, including 2 cockerels.