what to do

[WIchickMama]

Thanks to the help of some lovely people on this site I have learned that I most likely have a pair of Polish chickens not two pullets as I thought. So.....I can likely take the roo back to the family where I got him from (they literally had like 40 chickens roaming their yard with some lovely ducks) but is it too late to grab another pullet from them and bring them home to the rest of the flock? All 8 of my chickens came home from their farm 10 days ago from a group that was all raised together from the same hatchery shipment, and they still have some from that group. OR would there be issues? Thanks for the help

 

[Ridgerunner]

Personally I would not worry about biosecurity issues, no quarantine required, as long as they have not brought in any new chickens in those 10 days. You are good on that part.

Will there be reintegration issues? I don't know. How badly do you want another chicken? If you have them shoehorned into the least amount of space you can, I would not try it. Where you are winter may really shrink what room you now have. If you have a fair amount of room above the absolute minimum I think your odds are really good that it will work. If you really want another chicken now is the time to try it. Just make sure you can be around to observe when you do. And I'd suggest if you have room that you get two, not one. That usually works better. If you don't have room for two, you don't have room for one.

 

[WIchickMama]

Thanks for the input--I definitely don't need another one. I was just wondering what the options were. I think that I would lean more towards just going into winter with the 7. Our plan is to add onto the run area in the spring. We aren't shoehorned but more is always better right?! lol

 

[B-Goock]

Completely agree with ridgerunner.

Huge factors on integration is space and numbers.
Plenty of room solves alot of problems with chickens.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I think that I would lean more towards just going into winter with the 7. Our plan is to add onto the run area in the spring. We aren't shoehorned but more is always better right?! lol

If you're expanding in spring, that would be a better time to add any newcomers, plus it'll help spread out the ages of the birds a little which is good for eggs if that's any interest to you.