Older chickens and introducing new ones..

[Oogieboogie]

I have 2 chickens left in my flock.. they are around 8 years old.. I was thinking of getting chicks this year and have them join the other 2. I was wondering if that is a good idea or wait until the 2 have passed and then get more.. I was also worried if one passed the other would be alone.. what is the better way to go? Will the last chicken be lonely?

 

[the_peanut_coop]

I have got chickens and put them with other chickens, and it was a little rough. I would do it, tho. I would not want to risk the loneliness for the older hen. chickens die from loneliness.

 

[Mrs. K]

Well I love having chickens, and would want more FOR ME. If you think you are done with wanting to have chickens, then I would not get more.

MK

 

[aart]

I have 2 chickens left in my flock.. they are around 8 years old.. I was thinking of getting chicks this year and have them join the other 2. I was wondering if that is a good idea or wait until the 2 have passed and then get more.. I was also worried if one passed the other would be alone.. what is the better way to go? Will the last chicken be lonely?

If you want more now, get more.
I prefer to get chicks and integrate early.
Depends on your coop setup whether this is possible,
but here's a few ideas of how to:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/integrating-new-birds-at-4-weeks-old.72603/

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hi, welcome to the forum, glad you found us.

Assuming you want chickens in the future I think you have different options. One that you mentioned is to wait. I personally would not do that. At that age you could lose one or both at any time. I would not want just one chicken by itself. I think it is easier to integrate other chickens if you have at least two older ones.

I'll mention an option I don't think you will like but I'll put it on the table for you to reject. You could eat those two or give those two away and get new chicks. That eliminates any integration issues but if you give them away they will probably be eaten. I think those two are pets and you won't like this.

The way I'd go about it is to get more chicks now and integrate them. How hard would it be to integrate them? I don't know what your facilities look like or how many you want to get. Have you ever integrated chicks before? If not, the more information you can give us on the size and layout of your facilities the better we may be able to make suggestions on how to do that. Your general location and the time of year you would do this could be valuable information so we know what kind of weather you will probably be facing. Many of us integrate baby chicks all the time. If you have sufficient room it doesn't have to be hard. Photos of your facilities can be valuable.

You could get Point Of Lay (POL) pullets. This way you know for sure they are all girls. With baby chicks that's not always a sure thing. You may have more biosecurity issues that you would not have with baby chicks. In some cases a quarantine could be pretty valuable, a good quarantine is not always easy for most of us to do. Again, what your facilities look like could be good information.

Each integration is different so I can't give you any guarantees on any of this. People do these different methods all the time with varying success. The more room you have the easier it usually is.

Good luck and, once again,