Re-introducing a sick chicken

[Raptor Chicken]

So we had a hen that was sick who is now getting much better. It was raised with the other 5 from chick stage.

Last weekend my wife decided to just drop the quarantined chicken back into the extended run with the other 5. As you can imagine chaos ensued and the quarantined chicken got beat up a little.

So the question is how to do this right. My thought was to let the formally sick chicken in the extended run while the rest of the flock stays in the coop/run. Then maybe after an hour or so let one or two chickens out of the coop/run to interact.

Then at some point let all 5 out of the coop/run and put the quarantined chicken in the coop/run to not only get familiarized but also let the other chickens see the other chicken in their space.

What say the hive? Currently we're keeping the sick chicken in a extra large dog kennel in our office. But the wife and I are both in agreement that's not a longterm solution. We're either reintroducing or getting rid of.

 

[rosemarythyme]

She needs to be reintegrated just as a new bird would be. If your flock is very docile, maybe a couple hours would be enough (you can probably judge by the way they react to her inside the safe area), but 1-2 weeks of see but no touch is more along the lines of what would be expected.