Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: flair on August 16, 2010, 08:26
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Help! got 4 chickens that we have had for 3 months.Was hoping to get 2 new hens that were comercial birds, so about a 1yr old.unfortunatley they had just got rid of them, so my friend brought us back 2 pol.we are quite happy to have them, but 2 of our chickens are having a field day pecking at the new ones.we have now separated the old from new, although they are all in the coop at night.am not sure wether to take the bull by the horns and let them all run freely together?My husband is struggling with the squawking and distress that its causing them. (they are very cute!).If anyone can offer advice it would really help!
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When ever you get new hens they should be kept completely separate for 2 to 3 weeks before introducing them just in case the new ones have any infections. During this time make sure they are in full view so that they can get used to seeing each other. Then when you place them together make sure there are several feeders, drinkers and places they can run to hide from each other. You will almost always get the fights as you have just introduced intruders into their place and they need to establish the pecking order. Make sure you are on hand to administer the purple spray to disguise any redness caused by the fighting.
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thank you.seems to be lots of ideas on differentsites, but never sure what to try!!
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You have tried the putting them together straight away method which is obviously proving a problem (apart from the possible infection problem which has not been addressed by following this route), in fact that method usually only works with few problems if you have free ranging and loads of hiding places and several coops, feeders and drinkers so I suggest you try the slower route mentioned above - as I said you will still get pecking and bullying but hopefully not too severe. If you only have 1 coop then separate their run into two so they can be let out in full view for a few weeks and move their feeders closer to each other a bit at a time. If they came with any infections then sadly they could have passed it onto your other birds already.