I need a bit of advice. We have 10 chickens in a run with a house. They are all between 1 and 2 years old. A neighbour has just knocked at my door asking if I wanted 3 chickens and 1 bantam which she has inherited with her house and doesn't want. Her chickens are in a small coop with a house. If I said yes, obviously I would need to keep them seperate for a while nearby to get used to each other. Would putting them all in together work? What about the size of the bantam, would she get picked on? Any advice greatfully received.
New chickens
- Thread starter Hilary
- Start date
Hi Hilary, and a big welcome to the Forum!
I wonder how big your run is, (bearing in mind that the recommended run space per chicken is 2 sq. metres, certainly no less than 1 sq.metre.) If you take on 40% more chickens and they don't have enough space, it would be difficult to integrate them with your existing flock and they would be likely to resent newcomers and fight. You might well get ongoing problems later, with feather-pecking as well if they're overcrowded. As your group are all adults this process might be a bit tricky anyway, but it could be managed and there's lots of advice on here about how to go about it. As you'd be adding quite a few, the bantam would be less 'exposed' within her own known group of hens, so if she's not at present being bullied by them she should be OK.
You're right to think that the new ones should be kept separate for a couple of weeks, but this is mainly for quarantine reasons - you don't want somebody elses's chickens possibly infecting yours or carrying parasites, especially as it sounds as if neither the previous nor the present owner was/is experienced with or greatly concerned about chicken welfare. Any change of living conditions is potentially difficult for chickens and often they do go down to health problems soon after being moved because stress lowers their immune system's resistance. Does the extra house and run come with the chickens? If so, do be careful, it may well be infested with redmite, which you don't want to import!
If you're concerned about the welfare of these chickens in your neighbour's inexperienced hands, maybe you could offer to help with looking after them for a while in her garden, and then try to rehome them for her? You could advertise them on the For Sale section as Free to Good Home.
Of course it all depends on whether you a) want more chickens anyway and have room and time for what would be quite a large number
and b) whether you want these particular chickens, having inspected them to see what you'd be taking on.
Do keep in touch and let us know what you decide, this sounds an interesting situation!
I wonder how big your run is, (bearing in mind that the recommended run space per chicken is 2 sq. metres, certainly no less than 1 sq.metre.) If you take on 40% more chickens and they don't have enough space, it would be difficult to integrate them with your existing flock and they would be likely to resent newcomers and fight. You might well get ongoing problems later, with feather-pecking as well if they're overcrowded. As your group are all adults this process might be a bit tricky anyway, but it could be managed and there's lots of advice on here about how to go about it. As you'd be adding quite a few, the bantam would be less 'exposed' within her own known group of hens, so if she's not at present being bullied by them she should be OK.
You're right to think that the new ones should be kept separate for a couple of weeks, but this is mainly for quarantine reasons - you don't want somebody elses's chickens possibly infecting yours or carrying parasites, especially as it sounds as if neither the previous nor the present owner was/is experienced with or greatly concerned about chicken welfare. Any change of living conditions is potentially difficult for chickens and often they do go down to health problems soon after being moved because stress lowers their immune system's resistance. Does the extra house and run come with the chickens? If so, do be careful, it may well be infested with redmite, which you don't want to import!
If you're concerned about the welfare of these chickens in your neighbour's inexperienced hands, maybe you could offer to help with looking after them for a while in her garden, and then try to rehome them for her? You could advertise them on the For Sale section as Free to Good Home.
Of course it all depends on whether you a) want more chickens anyway and have room and time for what would be quite a large number
and b) whether you want these particular chickens, having inspected them to see what you'd be taking on.
Do keep in touch and let us know what you decide, this sounds an interesting situation!
chrismahon
Well-known member
Marigold has covered all the issues. Will add that we put two cute little Bantam Wyandottes in with the relatively huge Orpingtons plus Legbars and the Bantams bullied them rotten -really nasty little things. So it depends on the breed of bantam Hilary, rather than the relative size in my experience.
Thinking about it, if you consider taking on these hens, do give them a very thorough individual examination. Watch the flock to see if any of them are sneezing, wheezing or have runny eyes or noses, and if you find this, insist that the present owner gets antibiotics from the vet and treats the whole flock for a fortnight at her expense before you take them on. Infectious bronchitis and similar diseases are very common, will go through your own flock if they come into contact with infected birds, and are hard to eradicate. Look out for any evidence of feather-pecking or lameness. Examine them individually for scaley mite (raising the scales and making bumps on their legs) lice or redmite infestation (round the bum, wing and neck feathers especially.) Ask when they were last wormed ( it doesn't sound as if they will have been done in the past 6 months, but the answer will give you more insight into how well they've been looked after.) Ask if they're in lay, see if their combs are red and upright (they may not be if they're not in lay, but very pale combs can be a sign of poor health or even anaemia from bad redmite infestation.) If you do accept them, during the quarantine period you should worm them with Flubenvet, and do your own hens at the same time if it's more than 4 months or so since they were last treated, then after that the whole flock will be in synch. for future treatments.
Most of these things can be treated, if you find you want to rehome these hens, but you need to be sure what you're taking on, for the sake of your present birds as well as your own peace of mind.
Most of these things can be treated, if you find you want to rehome these hens, but you need to be sure what you're taking on, for the sake of your present birds as well as your own peace of mind.
