Hi just after a brief bit of advice. I'm getting 3 point of lay hens (hybrid). A friend of mine has been keeping ex-battery hens, but unfortunately they recently lost a couple and now have just one, and have asked if we would take her at all. She is aged around 3 to 4 has lived on her own for a few months. Would this be very difficult to integrate and a terrible idea?
Mixing a single older hen with young ones
- Thread starter Chris Ox
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Hi Chris and welcome to the Forum.
If you can arrange for all four hens to be introduced to their new run at the same time, integration should be a lot easier. The three POL pullets will have come from a bigger flock and won’t have formed a bond as a group, and none of them will have existing territorial rights to their new premises. There may possibly be some scrapping and I would imagine the older bird might try to dominate, but things should settle down. But even a day or so when either the older bird, or the youngsters, have the run to themselves will produce territorial trouble when another bird or birds arrive out of the blue.
I have a small question mark in my mind about quarantine, however. If you were only going to get POLs, all from the same breeder, there would be no need to separate them as they would all have been together anyway. But if you also introduce an older bird from a different environment, she might possibly introduce a virus or bacterial infection picked up in her previous home. This might not be at all evident, and wouldn’t be a reflection on her previous care, but when hens are moved to a new home and have to cope with negotiating their place in a new pecking order, it is always a stressful time for them and this stress can affect their immune systems and can lead to the emergence of latent infectious illness. When introducing new birds, as a general rule it’s good to keep them separate for at least two weeks, away from any others you have, until they have settled down and you can see they appear fully healthy, (not sneezing, no runny noses or weepy eyes, clean vent feathers, normal poos etc.) This could be done by screening off part of your run with netting to separate the older bird from the youngsters, so they can see each other but not mingle or roost close together at night.
The other thing to think about is what parasites an older bird might bring in and transmit to your lovely clean pullets, eg lice, scaly leg mite and worms. In any case, you should worm all of them with Flubenvet as soon as they have had a chance to settle in and you can see they’re eating properly and thus will get the full dose of Flubenvet for their size. If not sure how to do this, do please ask. Your premises will be worm free at the moment, but any new birds you take on of any age will have come from an environment where there were worm eggs on the run floor and these will have acted as a starter dose in the gut of your birds, which needs dealing with ASAP. with Flubenvet.
If the older bird is a hybrid, you no doubt realise that at 3-4 years her best laying days are over, and that in most cases, hybrids don’t live long and healthy lives much after 4-5 years. Whether or not you take her on really depends on the strength of your friendship with her owner and your kindness of heart, I think. But at least if you have a good idea of what you’re taking on, there’s no reason why she shouldn’t settle in and have a good year or two with you, if you don’t mind the possible disadvantages that may happen. Striking lucky twice over isn’t something that happens to many battery hens!
Do let us know how you get on, we shall be very interested to hear how it goes.
If you can arrange for all four hens to be introduced to their new run at the same time, integration should be a lot easier. The three POL pullets will have come from a bigger flock and won’t have formed a bond as a group, and none of them will have existing territorial rights to their new premises. There may possibly be some scrapping and I would imagine the older bird might try to dominate, but things should settle down. But even a day or so when either the older bird, or the youngsters, have the run to themselves will produce territorial trouble when another bird or birds arrive out of the blue.
I have a small question mark in my mind about quarantine, however. If you were only going to get POLs, all from the same breeder, there would be no need to separate them as they would all have been together anyway. But if you also introduce an older bird from a different environment, she might possibly introduce a virus or bacterial infection picked up in her previous home. This might not be at all evident, and wouldn’t be a reflection on her previous care, but when hens are moved to a new home and have to cope with negotiating their place in a new pecking order, it is always a stressful time for them and this stress can affect their immune systems and can lead to the emergence of latent infectious illness. When introducing new birds, as a general rule it’s good to keep them separate for at least two weeks, away from any others you have, until they have settled down and you can see they appear fully healthy, (not sneezing, no runny noses or weepy eyes, clean vent feathers, normal poos etc.) This could be done by screening off part of your run with netting to separate the older bird from the youngsters, so they can see each other but not mingle or roost close together at night.
The other thing to think about is what parasites an older bird might bring in and transmit to your lovely clean pullets, eg lice, scaly leg mite and worms. In any case, you should worm all of them with Flubenvet as soon as they have had a chance to settle in and you can see they’re eating properly and thus will get the full dose of Flubenvet for their size. If not sure how to do this, do please ask. Your premises will be worm free at the moment, but any new birds you take on of any age will have come from an environment where there were worm eggs on the run floor and these will have acted as a starter dose in the gut of your birds, which needs dealing with ASAP. with Flubenvet.
If the older bird is a hybrid, you no doubt realise that at 3-4 years her best laying days are over, and that in most cases, hybrids don’t live long and healthy lives much after 4-5 years. Whether or not you take her on really depends on the strength of your friendship with her owner and your kindness of heart, I think. But at least if you have a good idea of what you’re taking on, there’s no reason why she shouldn’t settle in and have a good year or two with you, if you don’t mind the possible disadvantages that may happen. Striking lucky twice over isn’t something that happens to many battery hens!
Do let us know how you get on, we shall be very interested to hear how it goes.
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- 8,130
- Location
- Hampshire, U.K.
Well, yes, it’s your decision, Chris, - it’s always a problem for a keeper when only one older hen is left out of an original batch, we all get fond of our hens and want to do the best for them. Rehoming the oldie might seem like a good solution for your friend, but if you are a new keeper, it might not be the best way for you and your new birds.
As you say she has been living on her own for a few months, I gather your friend isn’t interested in adding companions for her. Hens do need the company of others, which is why we suggest never letting flock numbers go below three, with room to keep four birds (8 sq metres of run space, 2 sq. metres per bird.) Then, when one dies, you can add another two, so you then have two friendship pairs which will eventually mingle as a flock, and nobody is ever left lonely and unsupported. Introducing one single bird, of whatever age, can be very difficult - but a pair of newbies will support each other when joining a flock. Incidentally, introductions to a flock are likely to be much easier between October and February, when the hens are not in their breeding season as they’re much less territorial in autumn and winter.
The alternative, if you mainly keep hybrids for the reliable eggs as well as for their company as pets, is to recognise that they will stop laying once their egg cells are all used up, usually around 4-5 years, and that after their third laying season they will very often lay thin-shelled eggs or ‘softies’ and be prone to a range of distressing health problems such as prolapse or peritonitis, which are incurable. At this stage, there’s the difficult choice - do you cull them all and start again with a fresh batch, or do you try introducing new ones to make up numbers?Theres no ‘best’ answer to that, I think - but personally, it would distress me to see an old bird living on her own for a long time, because her owner couldn’t make up their mind which option to choose.
As you say she has been living on her own for a few months, I gather your friend isn’t interested in adding companions for her. Hens do need the company of others, which is why we suggest never letting flock numbers go below three, with room to keep four birds (8 sq metres of run space, 2 sq. metres per bird.) Then, when one dies, you can add another two, so you then have two friendship pairs which will eventually mingle as a flock, and nobody is ever left lonely and unsupported. Introducing one single bird, of whatever age, can be very difficult - but a pair of newbies will support each other when joining a flock. Incidentally, introductions to a flock are likely to be much easier between October and February, when the hens are not in their breeding season as they’re much less territorial in autumn and winter.
The alternative, if you mainly keep hybrids for the reliable eggs as well as for their company as pets, is to recognise that they will stop laying once their egg cells are all used up, usually around 4-5 years, and that after their third laying season they will very often lay thin-shelled eggs or ‘softies’ and be prone to a range of distressing health problems such as prolapse or peritonitis, which are incurable. At this stage, there’s the difficult choice - do you cull them all and start again with a fresh batch, or do you try introducing new ones to make up numbers?Theres no ‘best’ answer to that, I think - but personally, it would distress me to see an old bird living on her own for a long time, because her owner couldn’t make up their mind which option to choose.