Last year I bought a hen of about 8 months and 2 of 10 weeks (I really wasn't thinking). After quarantine I felt the younger hens were too young to introduce immediately and I tried introducing the older one. I took her out again very quickly as despite my best efforts the others were all picking on her. They are all bantams; pekins and Araucanas at that time. I went and bought two more who were supposed to be closer in age to the older hen. By the time they had gone through quarantine everyone was old enough to introduce and that's what I did. With 5 added to the original 7 (!) they integrated really quickly. Unfortunately a re months later I had a problem with what I believe was mycoplasma and lost my oldest hen, of 10. At that time the hens were treated with Tylan but it made little difference. a couple of months lather I still had one hen with blocked sinuses and we treated with Baytril and Metacam. All the hens are now ok. I believe the mycoplasma ( which didn't show up on recent tests) came in with the first lot of 3 hens. I have since introduced 2 more hens for the same place I got the second pair from, and all is ok.
With hindsight I don't think I would ever try and introduce a single hen again; I think the easiest way to deal with this is to get another hen and introduce the two to each other. Once they have settled together, introduce them both to the others.
sue
Issamee Burmese & Siamese
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On 1 Jun 2014, at 19:05, "'Lori ' america4821@myactv.net [CHICKENS-101]" <CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
How do I introduce a new hen to the flock? I bought a hen at a poultry swap. The hens don't like her. I've introduced new hens before, but never just a single one. Right now she's in a separate pen with just one other hen. It's not going too well. I know I made a mistake. I'm not sure what to do.
~Lori
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Posted by: "Sue Hewson" <sue@questor-cp.co.uk>
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