Outside Chicken Came And Joined Our Flock

Last week, as I was waking up with a cup of coffee, I looked out my door towards my chicken run and saw a chicken outside the run. At first I was like "Oh crud! Betty got out!" because at first glance it looked like my Golden Laced chicken Betty.

But then I realized that it was smaller, tail feathers shaped wrong, and of course Betty is molting like crazy right now.

So someone's chicken decided to come investigate mine. It kept walking all around the chicken run looking for a way in. My rooster, Nugget, who is also a Golden Lace was making all sorts of sounds. My Cinnamon Queens made a lot of sqwaking sounds at it.

I stepped outside with some scratch and it ran quickly away, making squwaking sounds of it's own. So it's real skittish of people. I spread some scratch down, and for almost a week now it's made itself home just outside our chicken run.

Today our schedule and the weather finally made it possible for me to let my chickens free range. The strange chicken came right up to mine. Seemed obvious it wants to join the flock. Not too many confrontations were made.

Finally, it ran into the chicken run and that's where it is now with my other chickens. There's some pecking going on, and Nugget just tried to mount it (it didn't like that). But otherwise not too bad.

I took some pictures of it. I have no idea what the breed is or if it's a hen or a roo (hope it's not a roo). It's a lot smaller than my Golden Lace or my Cinnamon Queens.

Here it is:





It's tail feathers are shaped like a axe head in a wedge.

Here's my roo, Nugget:



And my some of my Cinnamon Queens:

 

Thanks for the help guys!

We'll take precautions with her.

Trying to figure out where she came from.

 

All my hens right now don't brood. They drop their eggs, and that's it, they're done! Walk off and don't want anything to do with them. Which is good, I don't want chicks right now, just the eggs.

My rooster on the other hand, he get's really annoyed with me when I get the eggs sometimes if he's in the coop. Stomps is feet at me or pecks me when I go to get them. Cracks me up!

 

Just wanted to update you guys on this.

We named the hen Little Bit. We ended up having to remove her from the run because the others tried to kill her. She was a bloody mess when I got to her, and I pretty much thought that was it for her.

But she survived and is doing very well!

She stays outside and has the run of my land. I know this means I can't protect her from predators, nor can I afford to build another run just for her. She comes out of the heavy undergrowth from the tree line and visits, especially during feeding time. Sometimes she bursts out of the brush making quite a bit of noise, almost like a quail, but not to run away, but to run forward to me. Startles me every time!

She goes around the chicken run, teasing the rest of the flock for a while then walks off back into to the brush. She quickly disappears when I let my flock out to free range.