reintroducing an injured chicken to cold temps

[minifarm13]

Our 6 month old Buff Orpington was injured badly by a hawk last week (7 inch gash to the muscle with puncture wound and possible mild wing/neck injuries). After searching this site, we treated her and were pleasantly surprised that she is doing quite well. (She even laid her first egg two days after the attack!) She is eating and drinking pretty well on her own now and moving around quite a bit.

She is getting restless now that she is feeling better, and we are trying to figure out how to reintroduce her to the cold weather again. It has been in the low 30's here during the day and into the teens at night, and she is used to 70 degree temps as she has been staying in a box in our bathtub. I have some idea of how to reintroduce her to the flock thanks to this group, but I didn't find information about what to do about this. She would be going into a small yard barn (that we converted into a chicken coop) with a heat lamp and eventually will be going outside the coop during the day. We have 14 other Buff Opingtons and one Silver-laced polish that share that coop. Any suggestions/information would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[From the North]

I'll be facing the same dilemma as you soon, (see my thread - Hen with impacted crop) except it's quite a bit colder here. But I keep my house at about 55F (overnight) and 64-66F (daytime) so maybe a similar range as you're dealing wtih.

I'm thinking at this point I may just put her outside adjacent to the flock for a few hours during the day next week (I'll be off for Christmas holidays so more time to deal with this) and then I can bring her in at night, for maybe a week or so, before actually putting her back in with the flock.

I'll be watching this thread to see what suggestions you get!

 

[Nambroth]

I'll be facing the same dilemma as you soon, (see my thread - Hen with impacted crop) except it's quite a bit colder here. But I keep my house at about 55F (overnight) and 64-66F (daytime) so maybe a similar range as you're dealing wtih.

I'm thinking at this point I may just put her outside adjacent to the flock for a few hours during the day next week (I'll be off for Christmas holidays so more time to deal with this) and then I can bring her in at night, for maybe a week or so, before actually putting her back in with the flock.

I'll be watching this thread to see what suggestions you get!

This can actually cause more stress on them than good-- bringing her in and out of warm temperatures is much worse than just letting her get used to the cold all at once. Unless your daytime highs are much closer to your indoor temperatures, I would suggest against this.

I just had a hen indoors for about three weeks and I waited until it was not bitter cold any more (we were in the negatives). Today and tomorrow are supposed to be the 'warmest' days, with highs a bit above freezing, so I plunked her back outside.

The bigger worry is actually that the other chickens will beat the snot out of her! I put her out very early while they were still on the roost and they seemed to accept her reintroduction better, that way.

 

[minifarm13]

This can actually cause more stress on them than good-- bringing her in and out of warm temperatures is much worse than just letting her get used to the cold all at once. Unless your daytime highs are much closer to your indoor temperatures, I would suggest against this.

I just had a hen indoors for about three weeks and I waited until it was not bitter cold any more (we were in the negatives). Today and tomorrow are supposed to be the 'warmest' days, with highs a bit above freezing, so I plunked her back outside.

The bigger worry is actually that the other chickens will beat the snot out of her! I put her out very early while they were still on the roost and they seemed to accept her reintroduction better, that way.

Our injured chicken is now back with the rest of the flock and is doing quite well. We followed Nambroth's advice and waited for a bit warmer weather to take her outside. To keep her from getting injured by other chickens at night, we put her in a dog kennel in the pen for several nights and had a chicken wire pen we used when the chickens were smaller to keep her protected when she was outside. Then one night we allowed her to stay in the coop without the protection of the dog kennel. (Others have said this is a good time to reintroduce.) It worked well for us. Thanks for the advice!

From the North, how are things going with your hen?