Help with introducing a new bird please

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Help with introducing a new bird please
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ston

Joined: 23 May 2005
Posts: 7
Location: Epsom Surrey

Posted: Mon May 23, 05 9:19 pm Post subject: Help with introducing a new bird please

I recently started keeping chickens, Bought 2 hens at 5 weeks old to start with ( a Vorwerk and a Leghorn ) and plan to add another couple in August. My problem started when my Vorwerk hen ( now 16 weeks ) started crowing !! Unfortunately from day one I new I could only keep hens due to neighbours. So the cockerel must go but I didn’t want the Leghorn to be lonely so I went and picked up a new Vorwerk Hen of 10 weeks old today.

I was told I needed to introduce the new bird when they were roosting. I have just been down the garden as night was falling and was just putting the new bird in with the pair of them when the Leg horn now wide awake with the disturbance came running over and grabbed the 10 week old by the neck before I had even let go of her !! I had to pull the Leghorn off along with a clump of feathers.

The 10 week old is now back in the rabbit hutch by her self and is probably terrified poor thing.

I would much appreciate any advice from you all on how and when to introduce the new bird…. is the age difference just too much ??

Ston

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Mon May 23, 05 9:28 pm Post subject:
I've not done it but a couple of options from what I've read is: Put the new bird next to the old one but separated by a fence. Put them in together and they should sort each other out and get on ok. I'm still surprised how much ours fight and the three of them have been together for over 4 years.

pink bouncy

Joined: 14 May 2005
Posts: 174

Posted: Mon May 23, 05 10:36 pm Post subject:
One way of doing it is to put them on the garden together. They will square up to one another and maybe a few feathers will be lost but at least the newbie will be able to run away if she has the room to do so and once the older hen has asserted her dominance over her, things should settle down. It shouldn't take more than an hour or two to sort the pecking order out.

Lloyd

Joined: 24 Jan 2005
Posts: 2699

Posted: Mon May 23, 05 11:41 pm Post subject:
I introduced a cockerell to my girls a few days ago, and one might say that they all bonded immediately! My girls don't fight at all. I think its to do with how much space they have, and freedom of movement. They play "chicken!" with the dogs, though, and veer away at the last moment, when the dog doesn't react! (he was trained for security work, so aggression is only when he's allowed to!)

ston

Joined: 23 May 2005
Posts: 7
Location: Epsom Surrey

Posted: Tue May 24, 05 6:20 am Post subject:
Thanks for the replies….I think I will try a mixture of keeping them separated by a mesh fence for a few days as Treacodactyl suggested and then let them out in the garden together as pink bouncy suggested. Ston

Gertie

Joined: 08 Jan 2005
Posts: 1638
Location: Yorkshire

Posted: Tue May 24, 05 6:28 am Post subject:
Good luck, ston. Let us know how you get on - oh, and welcome to the site, by the way. There are lots of good things about Downsizer, but one thing is sure - whenever anyone has a query or a problem there are people here who can offer suggestions.

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Tue May 24, 05 11:27 am Post subject:
At ten weeks, the newbie is probably at a bit of a size disadvantage. I imagine she will continue be bullied until they are both roughly of the same size (don't know how big Vorwerks get, but Leghorns aren't too huge, are they?). Can you keep them apart, but in sight of one another as other people have said, until the new one has caught up a bit?

Andy B

Joined: 12 Jan 2005
Posts: 3920
Location: Brum

Posted: Tue May 24, 05 11:36 am Post subject:
How are you sorting out the sleeping arangements? When we had 2 new birds we would put them in a cat box, minus the cat, inside the hen house and then in the morning put them in a seperate run in the main run, after a couple of weeks you can try taking the run away and see how they get on. But make sure you are their just in case.

ston

Joined: 23 May 2005
Posts: 7
Location: Epsom Surrey

Posted: Tue May 24, 05 8:15 pm Post subject:

Thanks Gertie, Judith and Andy

They spent all day separated by the mesh so hopefully they know each other a little now, but when I picked the little one up to put her away tonight and she started squawking the other two became very agitated and looked like they wanted to have a peck at her too, like when dogs pick on the underdog in a fight.

Thanks Andy b for the cat box idea,to put the young one in a cat box in the hen house and I am giving this a go tonight. It will help her mix in more and not be so lonely. It will also keep her away from the fox who last night partly chewed off the wooden latches on the rabbit hutch she was sleeping in !! more trauma for her, nearly out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Lloyd

Joined: 24 Jan 2005
Posts: 2699

Posted: Tue May 24, 05 8:18 pm Post subject:
Ston, have you taken the (un)usual precautions against foxes?.....Male urine around the chicken area, tights stuffed with mens hair?....These do help keep the bugger away.

ston

Joined: 23 May 2005
Posts: 7
Location: Epsom Surrey

Posted: Thu May 26, 05 4:52 am Post subject:
Not tried the urine or hair ideas, I would rather just scare the fox when I see him/her/them and let him get the idea that the chickens are a scary place to visit.

alison
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 12918
Location: North Devon

Posted: Thu May 26, 05 6:52 am Post subject:
Ston The birds are too younge to be mixed. I wouldn't add them together until the youngest is about 20 weeks old. Scaring a fox will only work when you are there. We had an attack last week (13) and someone was camped right next door with a dog

Pat

Joined: 24 Apr 2005
Posts: 22
Location: Leeds

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 05 12:38 pm Post subject:

Having had hens for quite some years and lots of foxes around here I worked out if I put a dish of cheap dogmeat out every night they wouldn't be bothered getting into the run.To my mind if he's fed its too much trouble doing the breaking and entering.Well its worked touch wood I have never had any trouble with them.If there is an egg with a thin shell I put that out for them and watched the vixen training her cub to fetch it last year and she took it back to mum!
I know they do terrible things to poultry but try feeding them and apparently they like sweet things too and see if that makes a difference.

gerryz

Joined: 04 Jun 2005
Posts: 3
Location: Devon

Posted: Sat Jun 04, 05 9:18 am Post subject:

Hi Ston,
I once bought a single hen, against all advice, and it worked well. This is how it was done. We had only 3 hens, one of which is a wimp and wouldn't pick on anything, so I enclosed her in the run with the new one so Beth (newby) had a friend straightaway. After half a day I let tham into the garden with the other 2; they picked on Beth so I shut the two nasties up for the day. Next day I shut up one nasty and the 3 got on fine. Next day I shut up the other nasty; ditto. Next day all four were let out in the garden and it's been fine since. That was a year or two back. It helps to have two people and keep constant vigilance.
Good luck, Gerryz.

ston

Joined: 23 May 2005
Posts: 7
Location: Epsom Surrey

Posted: Sun Jun 05, 05 6:40 am Post subject:

So far so good but it is slow, the two older birds have now, more or less, accepted her during the day when they are free ranging ( but still a little bit of pecking and feather plucking ) but when they are in the run I still keep the younger bird separated.

My 10 year old son came up with the idea of feeding a perch into the run so that all three birds can perch on the same branch but the little one cant be pecked, brilliant

! it has definitely helped her be part of the gang !

I still keep the youngster in a cat box in the coop at night but will probably try letting them all bed down together some time this week. Thinking about the perch thing ... Maybe partitioning off part of the coop with chicken wire is the next step as they would all see each other sharing the common perch but the newbie will still be safe from bullying.

what do you think...

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