Posts Tagged new hens

Adding new hens to your flock is not easy!

Henrietta the Speckled Sussex hen.

What an experience we’re having trying to create (integrate) a small flock of four young hens. I bought two hens from a gal who had hand-raised six chicks. She advertised them as “10-month-old hens”. One, a speckled Sussex was strikingly pretty and the other, a barred rock nice looking, robust and healthy. I DO like barred rocks. They are great layers. The previous owner wanted them to stay together as they were very bonded.

I paid $25 each for them. I think this was a fair price in our county.

We brought the two hens home and put them in in their new pen. They were a happy pair, scratching in the dirt, dust bathing, and laying in their new nest boxes.

On the Monday of the next week, we bought two pretty hens, also 10 months old. This was from a lady who had a “chicken-and-egg” farm in the south side of San Luis Obispo county. The young hens were beautiful and I bought a Buff Orpington and a black Easter Egger. They were a bit smaller than the first hens I had bought and appeared less mature.

We put Team #2, the Buff Orpington and the Easter Egger, on the roost after dark. In the morning, all hell was breaking loose and “hell” and bullying has continued for 30 days. In the past week, there are times during the day when things seem quiet. But there was a time that Team #2 was being dragged from the nest boxes. We put a ladder in the coop for Team #2 to climb up on so their heads wouldn’t get bloodied. That has helped, they have a place to get away.

Though I know they are establishing their “pecking order”, this behavior is difficult to watch. I’ve never been good a toleration.

I wish that I had gotten 4 pullets from the same place, all the same age. It would have saved me much angst. The downside of having a hencam is, I can see all the “goings on” as the hens adjust. Not pleasant to watch.

Ginger and Penny steal raspberries off the vines.

We’ve had our two new hens, “Ginger” and “Penny” for nearly a week. We’ve kept them in a partitioned area inside the coop and put them in the henhouse at night. They’ve learned a few things in this first week:

1. Stay out of the way of the old hens, Daisy and Sweetpea. They mean business!
2. All food is theirs if they want it. Give it too them.
3. The nest boxes are more comfortable to lay an egg in than sitting on the ground.
4. The nest boxes are also fun to roost (and poop in).
5. If we don’t get up on the roost, Don will come out with a flashlight and put us up.
6. The old girls get to have the prime spot to roost.
7. Don’t get too close to the old gals or you’ll lose a feather or get pecked on the comb.
8. Raspberries are TASTY!
9. When Don or Lee says “chick, chick, chick” you’re going to get a treat so come running!
10. Don and Lee love the old gals but know that we are sweet and tame too. They think we are beautiful!

Tomorrow, Friday, we’re going to see if all four hens can be together all day and have worked out their new “pecking order”. If it becomes too crazy in the coop, we’ll separate them and give it a little more time. I think they are doing pretty well. They are learning “chicken manners”.

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