Should we try to adopt a neighbor’s chickens?

[alinas2010]

Yeah I haven’t got them myself but I’ve seen many people recommend them so they seem to work well. Good luck to you, I hope it all goes well be sure to post an update on how it all goes

Thank you. I will definitely need to post about it if we go forward with taking on these ladies, because I will need the help

 

[NaperLix]

Buy the porcelain eggs for each nest
Ask if there vaccinated Mareks.
They will want to kill each other until they are slowly integrated,divide with fence.

 

[alinas2010]

Buy the porcelain eggs for each nest
Ask if there vaccinated Mareks.
They will want to kill each other until they are slowly integrated,divide with fence.

Thank you. Appreciate your feedback.

 

[leahsaurus]

I have successfully stopped egg eating by leaving a few fake eggs in the coop. I might have to do it for a few weeks every 6 months or so when my egg eater remembers that she wants to eat eggs. Only downside is that it encourages them to be broody in the summer.

I’ve also had good luck adding in chickens to my flock. I’ve had some unexpected rescues where I’ve had a single chicken, that I have just stuck in the coop at night with the other birds, and in the morning, everyone has been fine with very few squabbles. It is risky, but I’ve never had a problem with it. If I had several chickens to integrate, I would try to keep them penned up close by so they can get to know your current flock safely. Good luck!

 

[catballou]

No luck getting them to stop, huh?

You'd have to take all the eggs as soon as they lay them and put fake eggs back. There are ways to cure this.

 

[catballou]

Seems to be resounding that the habit can’t be stopped. It’s unfortunate, because I’d like to give them a better life, but I’m not willing to make this my problem, either, and risk my flock harmony. I wasn’t aware that egg eating was that hard of a habit to break. Thank you both for your input!

It can be!!

 

[FunClucks]

The thing about roll away nest boxes is, you have to get the chickens to lay in the nesting box. Most folks use fake eggs for this purpose. But if the eggs are rolling away, and the chickens can't sit on them, it might be hard to get them to decide to lay there, I'd think.

Not sure how one would go about this. I know my hens won't lay anywhere they don't already see eggs, so fake eggs are how we encourage nest box laying. I haven't tried roll away nest boxes yet, for this reason (among others).

 

[JLoose]

Okay. Give me your good and bad integrating stories. I need some insight.

One of our neighbors has 3 hens about a year old. I think they are 2 RIRs and 1 leghorn (I think). He complains that they eat their eggs and he doesn’t interact with them much. They’ve just barely been aloud to come out of their tiny coop/run and free range the yard. He kept them locked up until a couple months ago. It breaks my heart he could keep them locked up in their small area. They’re chatty and come up to us when we talk to them through the fence. I don’t think they’re super tame, though. He talks about eating them because they don’t get enough eggs from them, (due to the hens eating the eggs.) I have a feeling he doesn’t give supplemental calcium. One of them is also looks to have bumble foot that I don’t think they treat.

We’ve considered offering to take one or all of them, possibly, and integrate them into our flock. I think he would go for it in exchange for eggs. Is this a bad idea? We have 4 hens right now that are 7 months old. So that would put us at 7 hens. We have the room and the time to dedicate to them. I just would hate for it to be a disaster and really stress out our girls. We have a 8x8 shed converted into a coop and a 20x8 run. We live in a small city with a medium size back yard ours “free range” in. So I think there’s enough room, at least. Maybe it’s not. Someone help me.

The animal lover in me wants to try to save these girls and give them a good life, but the other part of me says to not bite off more than I can chew.

Anyone have advice or stories about adopting more chickens? What amount of chickens becomes overwhelming to care for?

 

[JLoose]

Once a hen starts eating eggs, she won’t stop. AND she’ll teach the others this wicked trick. I fought this battle for six months. I finally came across this homemade inexpensive nesting box which actually works:

 

[springvalley123]

If I understand this, the OP hasn't actually seen the neighbor's birds eat their eggs, it's just the neighbor claiming that they do. If they are, it's the lack of protein that usually causes it, I've had a long-time bird/chicken expert tell me that. This rings true, because it's protein that is so crucial in molting--they can't lay (at least as well) and molt simultaneously, because they need the protein for egg laying.

So, the neighbor is probably feeding scratch because it's cheap, not even giving them an "expensive" 16% layer ration, much less a decent amount of protein, so they're starved for protein.

I admit to having several integration failures with hatchery birds, but I'd try to integrate. If they've already been exposed to each other, you might not see a reason for quarantine, but the idea of getting a cheap used prefab for the new flock and setting them up a ways away from your 8x8 shed/coop and run, sounds great.

Try to "see into the future" and think about how you'd feel either way. You can't save all the neglected birds, but you might be up to trying to help the neighbor's flock. IF so, best of luck, otherwise, please don't feel bad, sounds like you have a great setup for your birds and they're paying you back with eggs and entertainment and interaction.