Should we try to adopt a neighbor’s chickens?

[Yardmom]

I too think your neighbors birds may be eating their eggs due to poor nutrition. If they are given sufficient protein and calcium they are likely to stop eating eggs. I would suggest feeding a 20 percent protein feed such as Purina Flock Raiser with oyster shells on the side. Layer food does not have enough protein or calcium for some birds and these girls need a little catch up. Also use hard fake eggs in the nests.
Hiding places with out getting trapped, and extra roosting places will help with integration. Try to let them work it out on their own. If you want to try the integration, add all three birds at the same time

 

[CannedMonster]

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.

This!! This is exactly what I was thinking and what I’ve seen happen with others.
There’s so many people keeping all kinds of poultry that think scratch is food.
My friend brought chicks home from the feed store not knowing how to care for them. I think she did give them chick starter but after that her uncle told her they don’t need anything besides corn and that they would forage whatever else they needed.
Keep in mind, we live in SW Idaho so these poor chickens would’ve starved in winter.
She was complaining to me about how she never gets any eggs. After asking how old her birds were (9 months) she told me what her uncle had advised.
It’s possible the OP’s neighbor doesn’t even give them feed. That would definitely cause egg eating.

 

[alinas2010]

It’s been a while since I’ve had time to actually get on and do anything more than like comments! But I wanted to tell all of you thank you. I love hearing all of the advice from you experts here.

My thoughts were also along the lines of these birds getting not enough protein and calcium, making the egg eating worse. I do think they are small for their age, ours are a lot bigger and somehow brighter looking, if that makes sense, so the lack of protein seems plausible. The nesting box and fake egg suggestions are also very much appreciated for this situation! We currently have fake eggs in our nesting boxes and our girls responded well to them. Maybe with the shock of integrating, having fake eggs, and making extra effort to collect before they become bird breakfast, there really would be some hope to stop egg eating.

Reading all of your integration stories is also wonderful for me. If we did this, we would definitely be taking the 3 of them now and luckily he have a small prefab coop they could do the see no touch rule with while everyone got used to each other.

With all of the helpful responses here, I feel a lot better about this decision. Still a bit on the fence, but mostly leaving towards pulling the trigger….it’s something I think we’re going to approach this neighbor about after the holidays and see what he says. If he doesn’t go for the idea of us adopting them, at least I can give him some really helpful suggestions for his egg eating problem. Again, so thankful for your responses and I love hearing the advice. Dang it for having a chicken obsession and wanting all the chickens on our block now!!

 

[alinas2010]

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!

I love this for you. It gives me hope, too. Thank you!

 

[alinas2010]

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:

This is ingenious! And cheaper!!

 

[Sonflowerjoela]

Hello! I’m following to see how this turns out for you. I got 3 hens last June. I have one of those chicken tractors. I put that in a dog pen. Something got one of my girls. So I only have 2 now. We have built a chicken house because they have seriously outgrown the tractor. Wanting to get a few more hens. Wondering about how to integrate them. My plan was like yours to keep new ones in chicken tractor until they get use to each other. Such great ideas by the experts! Hope all goes well with whatever you decide!

 

[alinas2010]

Hello! I’m following to see how this turns out for you. I got 3 hens last June. I have one of those chicken tractors. I put that in a dog pen. Something got one of my girls. So I only have 2 now. We have built a chicken house because they have seriously outgrown the tractor. Wanting to get a few more hens. Wondering about how to integrate them. My plan was like yours to keep new ones in chicken tractor until they get use to each other. Such great ideas by the experts! Hope all goes well with whatever you decide!

Hi! Thank you for your kind words. I will definitely keep everyone updated on if this happens or not. If it does I will certainly need more helpful advice!

I completely understand them outgrowing the tractor, we had a similar situation with a prefab coop. We eventually decided we were into chicken keeping for the long haul and invested in a large shed and run area for our girls.

Hope you’re able to get some great integration advice from the folks here. They’ve definitely helped me on some ideas. Good luck to you and your flock!!

 

[Wot The Flock]

Alinas, not sure if you went ahead and adopted the neighbour's birds.

After reading the thread, I would concur that the neighbour is not feeding them well, which could mean they are not even laying at all, or eating them.

From my experience, pullets may eat the odd egg, and it is usually because they have attempted to lay from a roost or similar; egg falls on ground, pullet often eats it. I have had two of my (now older) girls do that as they first started laying, but grew out of it, and not eaten any eggs since. Fake eggs in the nesting boxes, and putting them there if making noise/behaviour like they are thinking about laying.

As for integration, your chances are likely to be successful. Roughly even numbers, and roughly same ages.

Two weeks ago, I bought 3 pullets (about 6-8 months old) to add to the existing 9yo, 5yo and 3yo. I went for pullets because I needed a faster integration time (adult size, but teenager brain).

How it went initially, is that the old girls freaked out at "big chickens". For about 8 days, each flock was fenced off with half the run each (with the older girls free ranging when the weather was suitable). On day 2, a couple of altercations through the steel mesh fence. At night, I had a small pen constructed in the chicken shed.

On about day 6, the new girls got the whole run while the old girls free ranged. On about day 8, when weather good and older girls free ranging, new girls got to explore the free range area. I had a couple of very minor pecking order pecks, and two moderate altercations - but I was supervising the entire time. I don't have a rooster, and my alpha (9yo) has an injured foot and is caged. She would normally police the new order, but cannot. So I did it. I told off each newbie that attempted a challenge to the older (scaredy-cat) girls. The newbies all knew their names (day 1 was naming) and if I saw a challenge was about to occur, I would call newbie's name followed by strong "no". This worked. That only happened for about 3 days.

We are at day 14, and there are no squabbles (except one attempt by the lowest ranking pullet, who got told "no" yesterday). And although they sort of mostly hang with existing flock groups, there has been a lot of integration and mixing as well, with no dramas. Pretty good result for day 14, even though not fully mingling all the time.

The other key part of that, is that I watched my older girls' confidence level before I began the integration process, given they were nervous about the newbies. Previous integrations with POL even though a similar method of separation, resulted in months of picking on the newbie (big mistake, adding only one).

So I bucked the conventional 'wisdom' of 'not interfering' with pecking order, and on this occasion at least, it not only worked, but worked exceptionally well. I picked this time due to being on holiday, and able to spend a lot of time with the chickens.

I would add though, the newbies still sleep in the separate pen in the shed (9'x9' or 3m x 3m) as I do not think it is time to integrate them in there yet (confined space). I do have the pullets better trained for "bed time", and they go in without too much protest or trying to escape. I will likely integrate them in the shed in a few more days, or the middle of next week, just following my intuition for when the time is right.

 

[alinas2010]

Alinas, not sure if you went ahead and adopted the neighbour's birds.

After reading the thread, I would concur that the neighbour is not feeding them well, which could mean they are not even laying at all, or eating them.

From my experience, pullets may eat the odd egg, and it is usually because they have attempted to lay from a roost or similar; egg falls on ground, pullet often eats it. I have had two of my (now older) girls do that as they first started laying, but grew out of it, and not eaten any eggs since. Fake eggs in the nesting boxes, and putting them there if making noise/behaviour like they are thinking about laying.

As for integration, your chances are likely to be successful. Roughly even numbers, and roughly same ages.

Two weeks ago, I bought 3 pullets (about 6-8 months old) to add to the existing 9yo, 5yo and 3yo. I went for pullets because I needed a faster integration time (adult size, but teenager brain).

How it went initially, is that the old girls freaked out at "big chickens". For about 8 days, each flock was fenced off with half the run each (with the older girls free ranging when the weather was suitable). On day 2, a couple of altercations through the steel mesh fence. At night, I had a small pen constructed in the chicken shed.

On about day 6, the new girls got the whole run while the old girls free ranged. On about day 8, when weather good and older girls free ranging, new girls got to explore the free range area. I had a couple of very minor pecking order pecks, and two moderate altercations - but I was supervising the entire time. I don't have a rooster, and my alpha (9yo) has an injured foot and is caged. She would normally police the new order, but cannot. So I did it. I told off each newbie that attempted a challenge to the older (scaredy-cat) girls. The newbies all knew their names (day 1 was naming) and if I saw a challenge was about to occur, I would call newbie's name followed by strong "no". This worked. That only happened for about 3 days.

We are at day 14, and there are no squabbles (except one attempt by the lowest ranking pullet, who got told "no" yesterday). And although they sort of mostly hang with existing flock groups, there has been a lot of integration and mixing as well, with no dramas. Pretty good result for day 14, even though not fully mingling all the time.

The other key part of that, is that I watched my older girls' confidence level before I began the integration process, given they were nervous about the newbies. Previous integrations with POL even though a similar method of separation, resulted in months of picking on the newbie (big mistake, adding only one).

So I bucked the conventional 'wisdom' of 'not interfering' with pecking order, and on this occasion at least, it not only worked, but worked exceptionally well. I picked this time due to being on holiday, and able to spend a lot of time with the chickens.

I would add though, the newbies still sleep in the separate pen in the shed (9'x9' or 3m x 3m) as I do not think it is time to integrate them in there yet (confined space). I do have the pullets better trained for "bed time", and they go in without too much protest or trying to escape. I will likely integrate them in the shed in a few more days, or the middle of next week, just following my intuition for when the time is right.

Thank you, a lot of valuable information for integration here. I feel I would be taking a similar approach to yours, supervising closely and splitting up the run and free range time first. It sounds like it’s worked very well for you.

As for adopting the neighbors chickens, I am not sure it will be happening. I would still really like to, but we talked to him last week and brought it up and he said he would probably go about eating them. I understand his decision, it’s always a plus to be self sufficient, I just wish I hadn’t sorta made friends out of them. We still want to pester him about it again, I don’t see him processing them anytime soon, but who knows. If we don’t get his, I would still like to get a couple more chicks/chickens from somewhere this spring.

 

[Wot The Flock]

As for adopting the neighbors chickens, I am not sure it will be happening.

I figured due to the duration and age of the thread, it was probably the case, and as badly as he 'cares' for them, he likely would not part with them. Some people are just like that, and do not see animals as much value.

Mine are pets. So I spend as much time as I can with them. They will never be "processed".

Certainly, get some more, but a little while down the track (that way you have new layers as some of the others may reduce their laying). Having said that, my 9yo still lays as well as the average hen, she was a champion layer until 8yo.

So I would suggest to get the new ones when your existing ones are about 2, 3, or 4yo. And get three. That should work out nicely with the existing four. Your shed and run are about the same size as mine, and that area is fairly good for that number. Mine do have an additional free range area, about the size of a small backyard I guess.

Having 6-7 in that size shed and run should be fine. But if in the future, you want more (and who doesn't?!?!) then add some more run or give them some part time free range, and they should all be happy enough. It seems to me that 'chicken math' has a doubling factor involved. Having just doubled my flock, it seems now 'right' and not too many!

To add to my 'interference' in the pecking order management (which was really reinforcing the 'natural order'), getting the pullets to back down worked well, but had the older ones become bullies after a while, I would have told them to back down. Without a rooster, the human becomes a bit of a rooster (IMO). But, as I said, I was more reinforcing the existing order, not changing it about. I knew my existing order, and I also knew the order of the pullets. IME, the pecking order becomes a huge issue when the higher ranking feel either 'insecure' or 'threatened' by the newcomers, and/or the newcomers do not submit, that was my approach. I think it helped that the newcomers loved the new accommodation, so more readily took instruction from my 'authority', because they preferred it over their last home at the breeder's. They also became more chatty too!

I was surprised that the alpha pullet backed down so readily, tbh. I thought I would have far more issue there. Another thing I do, when greeting, I greet in pecking order order. That way every bird knows her 'place'. I don't do it 100% of the time, but most of the time.