Please Help My CHICKENS!

[My Fav Chickens]

Hi everyone! I need help badly. I have (currently) 2 chickens. One is a Isa Brown and the other is the a New Hampshire.
Today i got a new chicken. An australorpe and the people who i bought it from said to be careful because my chickens could be racist to my new australorpe. I knew they were right about them not accepting Munchkin (My new Australorpe's name). But when i got home i was excited as my new chicken was very young and hadn't started laying like my older ones who've i've had for about 2 years. I was confident they would be at ease and curious around the new chicken as they had grown up with a australorpe who unfortunately died. But as soon as i put Munchkin in the coop with my girls, they were sussing her out when they both lunged at her. Scared (i had never done this before), i grabbed munchkin and put her in the hen house (my girls are free range) and bolted it shut. I don't know what to do, Munchkin keeps sneezing really badly that i think might be a cold/flu. My girls are running around the hen house making their noises really loud while quiet munchkin sits inside. WHAT SHOULD I DO????? PLEASE HELP!!!!!! I'VE NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE AND I DON'T WANT MUNCHKIN HURT!

 

[krista74]

OK, I am no expert, but first things first....

You need to keep Munchkin isolated from the other birds for at least a couple of weeks. This would be recommended even if Munchkin wasn't sneezing, but since she is/might be unwell already, the last thing you want is to have her infect your whole flock.

Chickens can get infectious bronchitis and other viral respiratory diseases quite easily (coughing, sneezing, watery discharge from the nose) and little Munchkin may well need treatment. This kind of illness can be highly contagious, so I wouldn't let her anywhere near your other girls just yet.

Once all of that has been dealt with, and Munchkin is over her sniffles, you can think about introducing her to them.

There are several trains of thought on how this should be done. You could put her onto the roost when everyone else is already asleep at night. That way they all awaken to find a new member already part of their group. You could also set her up in a separate pen within the main coop where they can see her and get used to her, but not touch her for a while.

The other alternative is to let nature take it's course. Quite often there is an initial flurry of activity when a new bird arrives, but they sort it out amongst themselves in due course. As long as there is no blood drawn and no serious injuries occur, they should be right to set their own pecking order.

Good luck! Let us know how you get on Krista

 

[cafarmgirl]

This is why it is so important to quarantine new birds for a minimum of two weeks. You new bird may very well have brought home some respiratory disease that may now infect your other birds. If it were me I'd be returning the sick bird.

As for integrating new birds... integrating a single new bird into a small flock can be very hard. Chickens HATE newcomers. It is best done by fencing off part of the run for the new bird, let them share a fence line for a couple of weeks and get used to each other. Sometimes even then it's hard and can take a long time.

 

[My Fav Chickens]

They pecked her! Around the beak because they got over! This morning i was called out to a meeting and i came back, they had gotten over. around her nostrils they had pecked her beak and it is red and clustered with dry blood. what should i do? i'm thinking of taking her back because she wasn't accepted her and she has got a few injuries! i don't want to take her back but i love her and if i do, she will be safe!

 

[krista74]

Hmmm, well like I said earlier, if she were mine I would keep her completely separated from the main group.

Respiratory diseases are viral - they spread through the air, not just via touch. So if you keep her in the same shed as the others, they could all still get sick, even if they are not physically touching her.

I know you love her but taking her back might be the best way to go. If she is sick she either needs to be quarantined and treated, or go back to where she came from.

Next time you decide to adopt, maybe try and get a few new birds instead of just one. One is much harder to integrate than many. Also remember that any new additions need to go through the two week quarantine process to protect your existing girls.

Good luck! Krista

 

[cafarmgirl]

They pecked her! Around the beak because they got over! This morning i was called out to a meeting and i came back, they had gotten over. around her nostrils they had pecked her beak and it is red and clustered with dry blood. what should i do? i'm thinking of taking her back because she wasn't accepted her and she has got a few injuries! i don't want to take her back but i love her and if i do, she will be safe!

Chickens will almost always attack a new bird that was not properly introduced/integrated. New birds, after quarantine, need to be penned alongside the existing flock for at least a week or so to let everybody get used to each other and work on the pecking order through a fence. Just popping a new bird right in will almost always result in it being attacked aggressively. And I agree with Krista74, it's always easier to integrate several new birds at a time, one is always a challenge.

At this point she has already exposed your birds to whatever illness she has. So even if you send her back you need to watch your birds closely for symptoms in the next week or so.