[Neil_B]

Hi guys,newbie here so be gentle 

We have a small chicken coop with attached run currently for our three girls: A coucou, a blacktail and an amber. We've had them since April this year. Previously we had three hens at our old house but dreaded mr fox got to them

I felt bad that we haven't been able to give e new girls free range of the garden so have converted a garden shed (6'x8') for them to live in and built a run alongside on an unused bed, the run is roughly the same size as the shed. Currently no cooks in the new run.

My main query stems from the fact that we are 'rescuing' three more hens (a skyline, a ginger nut ranger and a black maran)...

Should I wait until its dark and put all six hens in to the new coop one night and keep an eye on them over the weekend or is that going to cause feathers to fly?

Any help or advice would be greatfully received. I did try to search but couldn't really see anything the same as this query

Thanks

Neil

[symonep]

Don't do what I did and just plonk the new girls in with them  I paid the price and had some very unhappy hens. I learnt very quickly! We took the out and split the run in two so they could see each other but not get to each other. After about a week I started removing the fence so they could mingle for an hour or two and after about 4 weeks they could tolerate each other enough for us to have them in one coop.

Seriously the old girls screamed and kicked up a huge fuss and I could have happily given them away as they started screaming at around 5 in the morning lol

Everyone said it would take about 3 weeks and I think if I hadn't been so stupid to begin with it would have been spot on.
Hopefully someone will e along with some sound advise though! Good luck

[jhub]

Hello Neil and welcome to the forum.
You're right in that putting the new ones in at night is a good time for introductions but have you thought about quarantining them as it would be devastating if they introduced illness to your existing hens?

You say that they won't be able to free range so your existing run area is less than ideal for more hens. The experienced keepers advise 2 sq m per bird of run area with 1 sq m per bird as a minimum requirement. The establishment of the pecking order may be much more intense in a relatively confined run area. Some keepers have walk in runs and introduce different levels within them to offer more space.

Good luck with your adventure.

[Neil_B]

Thanks guys for the replies.

I'm going to have to do a bit of work to see if I can create more area in the run, should be okay as it's at the end of the garden and I have plenty of mesh etc left.

Hadn't considered quarantine, will do sod reading now