Putting a hen back outside after injury

[lizmc319]

We live in Maine and had a hen attacked by a hawk in mid November. By the time she healed, I was worried about putting her back out in the cold and shocking her system so she's been inside all winter. It's supposed to be 60 the next few days and close to 60 the rest of the week and overnight temps in the low to mid 30s. I was just wondering if the overnight temps would still be too much of a shock for her, and if so, how much longer would we need to wait?

And any tips on reintegrating would be helpful. We don't really have a way or a setup to let them see each other first and were just going to put them all in the yard now that the snow's gone and see what happened.

 

[CluckerFamily]

I would do the see but no touch integration to reduce stress on everyone.

 

[lizmc319]

I would do the see but no touch integration to reduce stress on everyone.

Thank you for responding. The more I read, we may look into finding a way to do that. I've also read that we could just put her back in once it's dark and they won't notice, but I'm not sure if that would be as successful. Any thoughts on the temperature change? I feel like that's my biggest concern right now. I'm so tired of having her in the house and she's tired of being in the house, but I don't want to rush it if that much of a temp drop overnight would still be too hard on her.

 

[Eggcessive]

Do not put her back in the dark. That can be dangerous. I would put her in a dog crate with her own food and water, and leave it in the coop with the others. When they go outside, move her to be with them in the crate. It may take a week or more before she could be let out with supervised free ranging. You could wait longer for the nighttime temps to increase, or you could use a heat lamp over one end of her crate at night at least 2 feet over her crate. A lower wattage lamp might be preferred.