New arrival, back to 3 hens

Bought a Barred Rock pol last Saturday. Well Hen is coming up 3 years old and getting inconsistent laying so I thought it time to bring in another. My bent toed, dodgy eye Speckled is laying most days, and I am delighted with her, She still wants me to carry her to her run  each night though

Well when we came home at noon on Saturday with our perfect Barred Rock, you would have thought the fox has arrived. I let Hen and Pecky, (yes she roosts on my chair back, pecks my shirt collar, hair, hat anything at her level, at dusk) out and they both stomped up the garden path shouting their heads off.

Been almost a week now and the flock dynamics are very interesting. I have Hen (the Boss) in her wooden coop, Pecky in the walk in eglu and Barb (Babs) in the dog cage in our conservatory.

Hen is showing her age now, Pecky is far too quick for her, the bullying is now much reduced and if pecky gets to the food first she just crowds hen out or skips to the water then back to the food etc, to frustrate old Hen. Meanwhile I am guardian of Babs, who I scoop out of harms way should the other two get nasty.

We are thinking of dividing our eglu run in two, so the two dotted ones can share. I have to build a nest box though for Babs then all should be well. Have to factor getting in  to get my eggs out as well

Apart from a couple of skirmishes today they all free range in my garden quite well, and I watch with interest how poor old Hen will gradually have to accept she will not be top hen for much longer.

What a wonderfull experience keeping hens is

And here they are

Had some success last night with the two dotties . I left the connecting door open on the split walk in run to see what would happen at dusk. They had both been free ranging well and apart from the usual squabble on the back of my chair seemed better than normal.

To make things quicker I now scoop them up one by one and carry them to their runs, got fed up of shaking a tin, getting cold, and waiting . So hen first, then Babs, who came straight out of the connecting door into the Eglu coop. Then Pecky, dropped her in over the half gate and there they were! Both together in the same run , not fighting, then gently off to bed . Both laid today in the same nest box , not at the same time I should add. It was a cold night last night and I'm hoping that they got a lot of comfort from shared warmth.
So all is now well, but Hen would never share , just have to accept she's an old lady now, nearly 3 and still laying a couple a week

If you have a set up that enables you to put a small coop and run within the main one it is brilliant for getting them used to each other without damage! Extra water and feed units work well when introducing fully. good luck.

Don't get me wrong. I still have to be the referee each day But only if they get rough, there will always be the nasty peck when my back is turned , but like children they know not to be naughty. Also at treat time they all get treated the same. 6 blueberries means 2 each,hand fed to make sure, each then gets carried down the garden individually at dusk. I'm sure they know what's going on and know the rules. Please remember Pecky was bullied for three months before Babs arrived. Henrietta was very nasty, so it does take time. The other thing is that Hen is fussed just as much as the other two, and told off too
I find the most trouble when they are bored or squabble over food or my chair , Babs regularly gets chased away, but she is now learning how to stay out of range. Don't despair Ghost just break up the fights, it will get better, of course I only have three. Today at lunch time I found an egg in the eglu run and one in the nest box, so I don't know what happened there

I can't imagine having to do all that moving and shaking just to keep a few chickens!     That would drive me batty and then some.  Can't you just keep them in one house and pen area and let them establish an order among them as per normal? 

Unfortunately my ill hen had to be put to sleep, seems she had a tumour in her throat so she couldn't eat.  After nearly four weeks of hand feeding her, it was so sad to see her go.  So now Popsy the new hen is stuck on her own in her own run and house next to the older hens.  So at least she has some company without the hassle!  Popsy is a lovely friendly bird and desperately wants to play with other hens, so depending on how long the restrictions go on for, we are planning on getting up to three more hens in the spring, and hopefull they will instantly get on with Popsy and then it will be four against two in the new set up.  Thinking of altering the run layout and getting a bigger henhouse so even the older hens will be disorientated and less inclined to boss the others around - or that's the theory!  We'll have to ai the and see but at least the time spent planning takes my thoughts away from dear old Dipsy - I got very used to her being in our kitchen so much so the room seems empty without her.

Poor Dipsy, but you really did try with her.  If she was that ill, putting her to sleep was the only option.  Its not nice when it comes to that though