THe meet and greet box

[columbiacritter]

Giving a new hen about a week in the new Meet and Greet box. Lots of growling and chest bumping thru the wire today. Hopefully after a week they won't start a war when I let her out.

WHen not using it to introduce someone new I'll store the door in the coop and use it as an outside feed station.

 

[b.hromada]

Good idea!

With any luck, they should get along fine.

 

[gryeyes]

Huh. Clever. A whole lot simpler than my building or buying a whole new coop or utilizing the Duck House for my "grow out/meet & greet" situations. I set up a bit of the run with temp posts and poultry netting so they have a bit of a run, inside the run, around their housing accommodations.

Very clever.

 

[columbiacritter]

Quote:
I've always cordoned off part of the coop and used the duck house too, but it's full so I had to come up with a new idea. Thankfully I had some large pieces of salvage plywood to make out out of for cheap.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

I'm about to do something like that for my Roo Kenny. He's going to go to Rooster-time-out while I get the little girls intergrated into the flock. He's already killed on that accidently got under "his" fence. Something like that may work for him.

 

[kickinchicken]

I like it but...I thought when you get a new chicken you keep it separated for about a month. How can a chicken being pretty much "right there" be safe for keeping out any unknown illnesses.

Oh, and I am sooo guilty of not waiting the full month

and having my while flock (7 chickens) come down with mites. Not impossible to deal with, but I really wish I had waited. They are all fine and lived thru 3 Sevin dust treatments

, but next time, and there WILL be a next time, I will keep the newbie off on the other side of the yard.

 

[calista]

Thanks for posting that great picture. When you know chickens, a picture is worth a thousand words.

("Oh, yeah??? Why don't you come out here and we'll see who's the alpha hen!!!")

That's a good way to use scrap materials and give the newcomer a view while she adjusts to her new home. Way to go!

 

[The Chicken Lady]

Quote:
You're definitely right about that. Quarantine is super-important. I imagine a "meet and greet box" could be used after quarantine just to allow the birds to get to know each other before releasing the new one into the flock.

 

[Celtic Hill]

oh i just had an idea! i don't now how you planed on taking the door off and such but you could use the hinges they use on doors in houses that have the pin you pop off to take the door off so your not always re drilling into the wood! just a brain fart i had!

 

[columbiacritter]

Quote:
The door is on with spring latch eye hooks, two on one side as hinges, one on the other side to open as needed. Also the roof is hinged so I can open it to take care of her food and water without her getting out. I have one of those long handled tennis ball throwers for retrieving eggs and I can't easily reach so I just open her roof and retrieve her egg.

She was quarantined for 3 wks in my daylight basement in a 8x 4 cage where no other chickens could get within 20 ft of her. She was wormed and treated for lice even though I saw evidence of no parasites. I should have kept her in for another week but she's a big bird pooping a lot and was stinking bad.