South Carolina

[RedBugPoultry]

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If you have a pen where you can do this, pull all the older birds out for a few day and leave the younger ones in the big pen. Then put the older ones back in one at a time over a few days. Might mess up your birds egg laying routine, and might not work but it has worked for me when nothing else would.

 

[ChickyChickyBaby]

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I do it once or twice a year. For the heck of it. I don't see symptoms. Of course, I don't know what symptoms to look for other than the comb & wattles becoming lighter.

 

[Lroach711]

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If you have a pen where you can do this, pull all the older birds out for a few day and leave the younger ones in the big pen. Then put the older ones back in one at a time over a few days. Might mess up your birds egg laying routine, and might not work but it has worked for me when nothing else would.

Thanks! I was thinking of doing this. I could put the older birds in a barn stall for a few days without too much trouble. At this point I'm not too worried about messing up their egg laying. I'm just sick of having my poor pullets all cut up

I feel so bad for them.

 

[ChickyChickyBaby]

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I never had either mites or lice. But I will be showing & don't want to pick any up either.

I never feed medicated starter. Ducks can't eat it so I don't use it.

I started using ivermectin because that was what we had on hand. It has worked so far.

 

[emptynester]

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I had the same problems with integrating a couple set of hens earlier this summer, 5 in the old established flock and 6 in the new flock. The way I finally got it to work, once everyone healed was-
Instead of adding the "new" girls to the old established flock, I added the oldest ones one at a time to the " new" girls. I started by taking the lowest in the pecking order from the old flock and working my way up, the last one introduced to the group was the bossiest one. I did it over a period of two weeks. This completely rearranges the pecking order.

The hen that was the meanest in the original group, now gets along very well with the others as she is no longer at the top. It's a happy group now, but Phew! the first few times I tried I wasn't too sure it was going to work out.

Let everyone heal, then begin again

 

[ChickyChickyBaby]

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How I integrate:

I have a wire cage. I put the new birds into it and put the cage into the run of the big pen - I do put a feeder & waterer in there! After a couple of days, I open the door of the cage & let the new ones wander in and out of it at will. They do run into it if one of the older ones get after it. It also helps them start establishing a new pecking order. Couple of days of this, and I start going in at night and putting the new ones in the coop with the old ones when it gets dark and it is roosting time. That way when the old ones wake up, they see new birds, but usually recognize them from outside in the run.

Takes me about a week, but I can move the cage out and they seem to be fine.


ETA: I do not have the patience to move at least 16 silkie hens in with 5 new silkies, one or two at a time. So this is the way that works better for me.

It is a larger sized cage, and if I have more than 5 to move in, I have to do it in groups.

 

[mrc]

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OK, I think the guys last name was Painter... My wife went and got them, so I never talked to the guy.

 

[ChickyChickyBaby]

NM...edited above post

 

[Lroach711]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I went and caught my original 4 hens ( i know only 4..lol) This was not an easy task as they were bought from places where they were never ever handled. I was too quick for them, though, and succeeded in catching them.

Since I'm dealing with a relatively small number of chickens, I think I'm going to try adding back the original flock one at a time..starting with the one lowest on the totem pole. I guess I'll wait a week or so before I start adding them back. I'm hoping that'll give the 2 that have nice gashes on their necks/heads a chance to heal a good bit. Hopefully we wont have any bad storms between now and then, because my original 4 girls are currently in our mini donkey's stall. When I first got my original hens, I bought 3 and then added 2 later (one got egg bound and had to put her down later)..there was the typical pecking and getting used to each other but nothing like this. Hopefully adding them one at a time will work though!

 

[WestKnollAmy]

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I am about to go meet Joy at Walmart. Is that exciting enough?

We chat for hours while her poor sons are absolutely bored with us. Hey, chickeneers got lots to talk about!