introducing new chickens

[Witchy]

Good grief!! I'm worn out reading all that lol!

I jointed this site as I also am introducing 4 new exbat gals to my original ebat group of 6. Reading this I think I'm just gonna chucke 'em all in together and stand well back!

The 4 newbies are in the run and coop (modified 10ft dog kennel) and the original 6 are in the 'extention' (old rabbit hutch cut about a bit with a nice shiney roof). I tried to let the originals in to get into the coop when it was getting dark but they just screamed at me in anger so I backed away and let them get their heads down - I know my place

[Annpan]

Gach... they are still laying in the bushes but they were all laying (bar 1 newbie, who isn't laying yet) but at least I know their hidey holes. I can't seem to get them back to laying in the house... I need to build a new nest box I reckon (t'was a cardboard box before.)

[Millymollymandy]

Do you just have the one nest box? With the extra chooks I think they need a few more. I only have 2 though and they'll often squeeze in together especially if they have a favourite one and refuse to use the other one. It's rather amusing seeing them all crammed in together - and my old girl who doesn't lay loves to go in there and pretend, she even comes out crowing sometimes!

[red]

my cream legbar pretends like that too.. she goes in the nest box.. then after a while does the proud crowing thing. only she is the only one that lays blue eggs.. so she is a liar!


i agree - more nest boxes. also just collect the eggs from the bushes.

[Annpan]

Ha, ha, ha.... Today We got one egg this morning and I had only managed to find one from them yesterday, so I knew there was a cluster somewhere... checked the usual places and there was none, then I clocked one of the girls going in behind the apple tree.... I left them to it and this evening went out to get the eggs (we had been out for the afternoon) looking for 2 eggs from today and 3 from yesterday.... the space behind the apple tree had 14!!!!!! yes 14!!!!!! I guess the one who wasn't laying yet actually was laying and we found them!

Eggs for supper then?

[Millymollymandy]

Tee hee it's like going on an Easter egg hunt!

[wulf]

My wife and I are just moving into a community house in Oxford. One of the benefits is sharing a very generous sized garden and one of the wonderful things about the garden is three chickens. This is a brand new experience for me... but also for the other people in the house. They got one hen a couple of weeks ago and another couple over the past weekend.

Unfortunately, the first hen seems to be bullying the two new (younger) ones. Reading through the posts above, it sounds like something to not be too concerned about. However, apparently the older hen has started pecking at her own eggs, too. Is that a sign of stress? Is there anything that should (or can) be done about it?

I'd be grateful for advice and also for any reading material (particularly online) you can recommend to help me get my knowledge up to scratch.

Thanks,

Wulf

[Millymollymandy]

Hi Wulf - congrats on the move and the bigger garden and the chooks! Will make a change from London!

As to pecking her own eggs, that's not a good thing as pecking means eating the contents. Chickens do love to eat eggs as I see what happens on the occasion that one of mine lays a soft shelled or really brittle egg, they just dive in and it's quite scary!

I haven't had the experience of mine doing it to 'normal' eggs but I think it has been discussed on here before - possibly Thomzo who had the problem? - and I think one of the things to try and do is put mustard inside an egg shell to try to put them off.

Here's a thread on the subject (I did a forum search for 'hens eating eggs' and this is the first thread that came up, there may be more)

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/forum/ ... ating+eggs