We've been adopted by an old stray hen.

[Chicalina]

I would deworm and delouse her and put her with your youngest ones. She needs chicken company. Young ones will accept her and she is unlikely to bully them being a lone hen. You could put her in a dog cage inside the run for a few days first if you wanted to be extra cautious. She has already been effectively quarantining on your porch.

She may just be looking scruffy due to molting and poor diet.

 

[SueT]

She may not be old, but just molting. All my hens young and older are molting right now.
She could wait till spring to start laying again.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

are you sure she needs rescuing? Your intentions are obviously good, but it sounds to me like she has chosen a free life out of a flock, and in confining her with others of your choosing, you might not provide her with a better life than that she has chosen for herself, despite your best intentions.

It sounds like she and her poor flock were dumped, and they didn’t choose that.

 

[Tristeli]

Perhaps post an ad about the abandoned flock. I’ve seen such [terrible] things on Facebook forums for chickens. It’s sad but frequent people will get an animal then get bored with it/overwhelmed with the work or my personal favorite…move and just leave the animals behind/dump them. It happens nonstop in my location with bunnies cats and dogs. That’s how my brother has cats…they were abandoned in the house he bought. I now have 5 house rabbits previously left as dog food. A rescue or enterprising person who’d love a free flock without the fuss of brooders will likely come to their aid. Dumping an animal to die is unconscionable imo.

Take that smart red chicken in. She probably hears the other birds and thought, hey, this might be a good place!

 

[BabesDucks]

Can/should we keep her?

Been reading BYC since bringing home our first batch of chicks in April, but first time I've needed to post...

A small red hen appeared out of nowhere and decided to nest in our front planter. We suspect she was part of a large flock of chickens (3 dozen?) that appeared on the edge of our property a few weeks ago. It's a rural area, but they've mostly remained alongside the road, so, sadly, some have been killed by cars and others picked off by local predators (likely hawks or owls).

But this one little hen has stayed at the house the whole time in spite of the big flock's very vocal roosters only being about 1k feet away, and our own 2 roosters (who are loudly competing for top spot) are a mere 200 feet away in a large coop right behind the house.

She is likely a "senior" since she has a full red comb and wattle, but we haven't seen any signs of her laying eggs. Her feathers are also a bit scruffy, so she may have had a tough time before moving onto our front porch.

The large flock is still in the area, and nobody seems to be missing them, including this little, old red hen.

Guessing she feels safe in the planter in spite of a constant stream of people, dogs, cats, and delivery trucks -- she even stayed in the planter while the whole roof was torn off and replaced! I had to pick big pieces of shingles out of her favorite yew bush.

We're equally worried she'll get snatched by a hawk or cause havoc in our newly integrated flock (21-wks: two roos & four hens; 7-wks: six pullets & two Pekin ducks).

Tempted to continue her self-induced "quarantine" in the front planter for a couple more weeks to ensure she's still healthy -- and wants to stick around -- then put her in a grow-out pen near our flock for a while to introduce her to our crew before putting her in their coop.

She's probably too old & small for freezer camp, so also not expecting any eggs (got our 1st eggs from our girls this week!!!)... and so just thinking we'd like to let her live out her natural days in safety and comfort, but not alone.

"She followed me home, Mom, can I keep her?"

She might be older and no longer producing but she clearly needs you. She cam still eat bugs and watch over/teach the littles. 100% yes! Keep the sweet girl!

 

[Chickenclaude]

My oldest chicken is now 9 years old. I integrated the younger group and believe it or not, she kinda picks on the littles…here I protected her from the other medium group because they would pick on her…so you just never know. I would keep Red. I’m a sucker that way.

 

[Cecelia the Great]

Got a much closer look at her today and she's definitely an older bird. Her feathers are quite scruffy and disheveled.
I don't think she's sick, but possibly hard of hearing? Or maybe she's old enough she's doing the aging-animal thing where they wander off to be alone before passing and we should just let her be...
But after all of the thoughtful feedback you kind folks have provided, I don't think we should add her to our existing flock OR just leave her out there on her own, so I'm going to find or build a small coop just for her and hope she takes to it for safer roosting at night. (If not, we'll have an extra coop for future chicken math.)

It would be detrimental to put her into an already established group of hens. I would find or buy or ask local fb barnyard group for 2 older hens. And put them in with the new coop you are thinking about. No more than 2 tho. Maybe one from one place, one from another to make 3 separate old biddies..like the Golden Girls! I have 49 hens all enclosed and safe from predators including a chickenwire roof! Allow her to age with a couple friends. One is a lonely number..(great song!)
Give her an exotic name and talk with her. We took in a neighbours old hen who was getting gang raped. I named her Cecelia and had her many years! She turned out to be our best ever hen! Good luck! God bless you.

 

[KGandE]

Can/should we keep her?

Been reading BYC since bringing home our first batch of chicks in April, but first time I've needed to post...

A small red hen appeared out of nowhere and decided to nest in our front planter. We suspect she was part of a large flock of chickens (3 dozen?) that appeared on the edge of our property a few weeks ago. It's a rural area, but they've mostly remained alongside the road, so, sadly, some have been killed by cars and others picked off by local predators (likely hawks or owls).

But this one little hen has stayed at the house the whole time in spite of the big flock's very vocal roosters only being about 1k feet away, and our own 2 roosters (who are loudly competing for top spot) are a mere 200 feet away in a large coop right behind the house.

She is likely a "senior" since she has a full red comb and wattle, but we haven't seen any signs of her laying eggs. Her feathers are also a bit scruffy, so she may have had a tough time before moving onto our front porch.

The large flock is still in the area, and nobody seems to be missing them, including this little, old red hen.

Guessing she feels safe in the planter in spite of a constant stream of people, dogs, cats, and delivery trucks -- she even stayed in the planter while the whole roof was torn off and replaced! I had to pick big pieces of shingles out of her favorite yew bush.

We're equally worried she'll get snatched by a hawk or cause havoc in our newly integrated flock (21-wks: two roos & four hens; 7-wks: six pullets & two Pekin ducks).

Tempted to continue her self-induced "quarantine" in the front planter for a couple more weeks to ensure she's still healthy -- and wants to stick around -- then put her in a grow-out pen near our flock for a while to introduce her to our crew before putting her in their coop.

She's probably too old & small for freezer camp, so also not expecting any eggs (got our 1st eggs from our girls this week!!!)... and so just thinking we'd like to let her live out her natural days in safety and comfort, but not alone.

"She followed me home, Mom, can I keep her?"

I think it seems like a lovely stroke of luck that she found you. Yes, by all means, keep and enjoy her

 

[KTmomma]

Heck. Always weird taking in a stranger when you have a young fresh flock. But can do. I love having my old wise gals around.















She is obviously the smart chicken of that bunch, and she is certainly very pretty. Maybe you can rig something for her temporarily while you both decide? I think I'd grab/rescue her and a pal or 2 off the side of the road. Heck, id grab them all and post an add to get them safely homed. Pretty sucky they are all there just getting picked off. People/person... , very cowardly and disappointing...?







Chooks probably not laying due to change and stress. May be the best chickn ever ♡

Got a much closer look at her today and she's definitely an older bird. Her feathers are quite scruffy and disheveled.
I don't think she's sick, but possibly hard of hearing? Or maybe she's old enough she's doing the aging-animal thing where they wander off to be alone before passing and we should just let her be...
But after all of the thoughtful feedback you kind folks have provided, I don't think we should add her to our existing flock OR just leave her out there on her own, so I'm going to find or build a small coop just for her and hope she takes to it for safer roosting at night. (If not, we'll have an extra coop for future chicken math.)

She's HOME!
The silly "old" hen didn't like the shelter we created for her (preferred roost in the bushes), but she did like the nesting box I set up on a whim, and SHE BEGAN LAYING EGGS -- SIX large, brown eggs in the last week and a half! So apparently she's not as old as we thought. Also she's gained quite a bit of weight and her feathers have grown back in nicely, so suspect she'd been molting and was under-nourished.
Over the weekend a heavy rainstorm started after she'd gone to roost, and she was getting soaked. Daughter and I decided to catch her, dry her, and put her in a pen inside the big chicken run (to protect her from the rest of the flock come morning). She wasn't thrilled at first, but quickly adapted, and is now integrated with our little flock. (She's the dark red one in the middle -- possibly an ISA? She's about 4-5 lbs and has a sizeable single comb).
Looking forward to more lovely brown eggs and earning her trust ... she's still quite skittish, but I can't really blame her after being on her own for who-knows-how-long.
And Hubby is glad she's no longer pooping on the front porch!
Win-win-win.
Thank you all for your helpful suggestions and encouragement!

 

[Debbie09011970]

Can/should we keep her?

Been reading BYC since bringing home our first batch of chicks in April, but first time I've needed to post...

A small red hen appeared out of nowhere and decided to nest in our front planter. We suspect she was part of a large flock of chickens (3 dozen?) that appeared on the edge of our property a few weeks ago. It's a rural area, but they've mostly remained alongside the road, so, sadly, some have been killed by cars and others picked off by local predators (likely hawks or owls).

But this one little hen has stayed at the house the whole time in spite of the big flock's very vocal roosters only being about 1k feet away, and our own 2 roosters (who are loudly competing for top spot) are a mere 200 feet away in a large coop right behind the house.

She is likely a "senior" since she has a full red comb and wattle, but we haven't seen any signs of her laying eggs. Her feathers are also a bit scruffy, so she may have had a tough time before moving onto our front porch.

The large flock is still in the area, and nobody seems to be missing them, including this little, old red hen.

Guessing she feels safe in the planter in spite of a constant stream of people, dogs, cats, and delivery trucks -- she even stayed in the planter while the whole roof was torn off and replaced! I had to pick big pieces of shingles out of her favorite yew bush.

We're equally worried she'll get snatched by a hawk or cause havoc in our newly integrated flock (21-wks: two roos & four hens; 7-wks: six pullets & two Pekin ducks).

Tempted to continue her self-induced "quarantine" in the front planter for a couple more weeks to ensure she's still healthy -- and wants to stick around -- then put her in a grow-out pen near our flock for a while to introduce her to our crew before putting her in their coop.

She's probably too old & small for freezer camp, so also not expecting any eggs (got our 1st eggs from our girls this week!!!)... and so just thinking we'd like to let her live out her natural days in safety and comfort, but not alone.

"She followed me home, Mom, can I keep her?"

She's so pretty! IF nothing else, she might be great bug control.