Akchickenkeeper
In the Brooder
Hi everyone,
First post! Sorry for the length.
With that, a little background information
I haven’t had chickens for almost ten years. Hoping it’s like riding a bike haha!
We bought a house recently which was supposed to come with a happy, healthy flock of 10 hens and a rooster. Instead, a bear attack left us with one hen and a roo before we moved in. On top of it, we discovered that the sellers were sadly negligent in chicken care. They had not been fed any chicken feed in who knows how long.On top of it all, 2 weeks after moving in we were dumped with 2 feet of snow, and >20 temps. These poor birds!
As can be expected, the hen is super stressed. She went into a molt, and of course is not laying. We built a new coop/run (they other was unsalvageable after the bear) but haven’t moved them over yet. Besides a quality layer feed, I’ve also been giving them some salmon every other day to try and boost protein/omegas.
Our neighbor kindly offered us 10 younger layers to rebuild the flock, which I accepted. But I’m very nervous about how to introduce/what to do next.
Should the 2 survivors be put in the new coop first?
Should I throw them all in together so they are all out of their element and let them resettle?
How do I keep my lone hen from getting pecked to death in the midst of her molt???
It’s all made so much more difficult by the deep snow
Losing my mind over here, and will appreciate some new perspectives! Thank you
First post! Sorry for the length.
With that, a little background information
I haven’t had chickens for almost ten years. Hoping it’s like riding a bike haha!We bought a house recently which was supposed to come with a happy, healthy flock of 10 hens and a rooster. Instead, a bear attack left us with one hen and a roo before we moved in. On top of it, we discovered that the sellers were sadly negligent in chicken care. They had not been fed any chicken feed in who knows how long.On top of it all, 2 weeks after moving in we were dumped with 2 feet of snow, and >20 temps. These poor birds!
As can be expected, the hen is super stressed. She went into a molt, and of course is not laying. We built a new coop/run (they other was unsalvageable after the bear) but haven’t moved them over yet. Besides a quality layer feed, I’ve also been giving them some salmon every other day to try and boost protein/omegas.
Our neighbor kindly offered us 10 younger layers to rebuild the flock, which I accepted. But I’m very nervous about how to introduce/what to do next.
Should the 2 survivors be put in the new coop first?
Should I throw them all in together so they are all out of their element and let them resettle?
How do I keep my lone hen from getting pecked to death in the midst of her molt???
It’s all made so much more difficult by the deep snow
Losing my mind over here, and will appreciate some new perspectives! Thank you
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You can put them all together. As long as everyone is in the same new place they will all have to readjust to their new surroundings and there will be a new pecking order established. Just watch your hen carefully and you may have to take her out and maybe not. Give them a good high protein feed. You can put the older birds in the new coop first and let them get used to it then introduce the younger birds too. No matter what you do there will be a little excitement while they establish their new pecking order. Good luck and have fun...
