I was hoping that I could get some input (read reassurance) on integrating my new pullet Shnitzel into my flock of three similarly aged pullets.
I got Schnitzel last Saturday from Catscan, and gave her a day to be by herself across the wire from my other three. On the second day, I put my most submissive pullet Soup in with her, and had the wire separating the two pairs. Schnitzel and Soup got on well, and there was a minimum of pecking before they seemed relatively happy together. Salad and Sandwich would occasionally peck Schnitzel through the wire, but nothing too bad, and I would catch them all napping together across the wire every once in a while. Two days ago I put them all together in the hen house at night, and they slept together just fine. Yesterday was Schnitzels first day with everyone, and she spent much of the day hiding in the hen-house while the others were out, but seemed to come out for food and water. Today she she is so scared that she wont leave the hen-house even to eat and drink. When I came home from work she was panting and crying. After giving her water I put her in with the others and she didn't even wait for Sandwich to head her way before running in terror back to the hen-house.
Will it get better if I just wait? Does anyone have any ideas? Schnitzel is very sweet, and every time I hear her crying I am tempted to just bring her in the house so she can hang out with me and not be lonely or terrorized. Of course, that wont solve the problem, it will just make me feel better.
Any input is appreciated, Myrrh
Integrating a new chicken into the flock....thoughts please.
Oh dear! Schnitzel is a very shy bird--but that is the way my other Marans acted as well and now she is well integrated with her flock.
Have you actually observed her being picked on? If she is being bullied I would separate her, maybe back with Soup, for a couple days.
If no one is actually picking on her, I wouldn't let her being scared by itself be a reason to remove her. She will come out when she is hungry and thirsty enough and gradually habituate to her new surroundings. My Marans, Brie, spent all her time by herself, or hiding, but now at 18 weeks she comes out and hangs with the others (these were hatch mates). She is the only one of the seven that won't eat from my hand, but she doesn't seem afraid of me and will come up and peer at me. Schnitzel seemed to be following the same pattern, but is having to adjust to a bit more stress.
Let me know how it goes. I have very nice and un-neurotic JG/BAs the same age that might be pullets:0).
Bumping up, so those with a lot of integration experience can help!
In my opinion, and that is all it is,an opinion. that they should not be put together yet, biosecurity is everyones responsibility, I am sure catscan has healthy fowl, as do you and I, but I would recomend quarantine to anyone recieving fowl from someone else, even me. what is healthy here may only be healthy because they have not came in contact with anything else. and what mine are resistant to, and/or carry yours may not have ever been in contact with thier strain.
I think everyone should have a quaranteen area, away from the normal areas your fowl are. care for yours, and then the new one, hence cont. on cloths and shoes, after some time, I use 1 month as a rule, ( sometimes I bend the rule, both ways depending on my confidence) Then I start introducing some of the older fowl to a holding pen, that the new one was in first, waiting up to another month to make sure everything is ok, if these are still healthy with no signs of sickness then .............................
move any and everything you can in the common pen, add new stuff if you can, as simple as a couple of trash cans of leaves,mulch or hay, just for fun leave a trashcan or two. anything to make it a "new environment for everybody" and give them all something to do besides fight. (dont think chickens dont just get bored, canabalism starts from such inocent things) also by taking some out and adding to the new one for awhile, now you are not introducing 1 to the wolves, you are spreading out the fun, everone has to start over to sort out the pecking order, not the many on the one, meaning no two or more will gang up. also add more water stations, and spread the feed out for a couple of days in diff locations at the same time. If any of your hens have spurs they need trimmed, to avoid injuries while they are sorting it out. but in general there is only one fix, time, I have never seen a hen starve in a common pen. pecking order will change when she gets hungry enough. ...................IF............. she is getting none, if she is getting some but not enough, she will waste away slowly, and you never notice till she dies. feathers cover what you cant watch. need to lay hands on her every couple days for a week or two just to be sure.
I have paid alot for fowl, but the best I have ever had were gifts. congrats to you, and good luck with her, I am sure she is healthy, but in these times you may want to give consideration to biosecurity. It would be a shame to oneday get healthy fowl from someone, and then loose 50-80% of your own just because yours had not been exposed to something that someone elses has been immune to for 3 generations, lots of indians went that way know what I mean.
un-neurotic LOL you so sure aobut that?
myrrh [forgbive me i usually misspell your name!]
you ahve done everything correctly, but just too quickly. back up to step one where you had her by herself across the wire, and leave it that way AT LEAST a week...
then move one hen over with her. wait a week. move another hen over with her, this time the most dominant one. wait a week.
finally. take the separator out and hold your breath while they all adjust...
meanwhile, spend whatever time you can out there, with all of them, just one pen at a time... you are doing a GREAT job... just more time...
tf
crossed with nc... i would have mentioned quarantine, but you have already mixed them...
i do the thrity days thing as well... lost too many to other problems, not taking any chances. and i don't take gift chickens from people, unless it is an extension of my breeding program and i know the source well...
tf
Woops, Myhrr! Didn't even think about quarentine. Yes, the avian vet who examined my two (putative) roos said they were extremely healthy and clean (no mites or lice) and I should have their blood tests back soon for Typhoid/Pullorum and AI. I'll give you the results as soon as I get them. None of the chicks or chickens have as much as sneezed, but it pays to be careful.
tf--you know those JG/BA are so un-neurotic they border on boring! I'll post pictures soon, they are strutting their beautiful stuff right now.
they obviosuly need some styrofaom cups hanging around LOL
Catscan, I meant no disrespect, nor do I now, healthy to you in your area with what they are immune to, is different than in someone elses, for example there are many strains of Coccidiosis, you may loose so few to it that you dont even think about it, send one to somone else thats fowl are not used to that strain and plowey, they are taking losses. the vet would say they are healthy because it lives in the intestines of all fowl, and is never checked, also Mareks disease, something so simple many give imunizations for it, ( I dont) but if you get one from someone that didnt tell you cause they think everyone does, then uht oh, or even pox, the vet would say its clean if it isnt broke out with it, because it is a common per say, but in all my years I have only seen it once, and that wasnt here. down south I hear everyone has it, but farther north its less common,( less mosquitoes I guess, lol) and many imunize for that too, but for someone who has never had it on thier place it would probably be devestating to the older fowl. Sneezing is generally nothing in fowl, Though I cull for so little. In my opinion a vets clearance is about as handy as book knowledge.
but you have intriged me also, You have to wait for the results of your Typhoid/Pullorum? the test is a 15 second drop conclusion signed immediatly. The only thing I ever have to wait for is the avian influinza swab test results.
hmmm, she may mean she is waiting fo rtheir shipping papers? i too thought she had it done on the spot...
Thats funny Tamarafaye, one time when I was green, before the kids were born, all I had to keep me busy was fowl, well I thought I would use a small starfoam bait bucket in for a water dish, lol, must have had 20 hens in that pen, anyways next day I was lookin everywhere for that thing, acusin my wife of takin it out and not leavin nothin else for them, then there one went runnin, with what must have been the last piece, bout the size of a playing card, 2 more chasing her.
Thanks so much for all your suggestions. If I had thought about it I probably would have done the quarantine thing, but hopefully all will be well. So here is my plan:
I am going to re-segregate the girls. I will put Schnitzel and Soup together and leave Salad and Sandwich as they were. Once they are comfortable again, I will put Salad in with Soup and Schnitzel leaving Sandwich (top lady) all by herself. Once they are doing well I will open the gate and let the whole group be together. In addition, this weekend I will set up a temporary pen someplace new and put everyone in it for short periods while I am there to supervise. Hopefully that will do the trick. I really appreciate all of your imput.
TamaraFaye, you've always had all the right letters, only the order has changed. I figure that is what counts, right ;-)
By the way, I just had a terrible scare. I went out to check on the girls and looked behind me right as a giant fox hopped onto the top of our 6 ft fence right next to the coop and looked me straight in the face. I yelled at him and he calmly dropped off the other side as though saying "don't worry, I'll be back once you're gone." We live in the middle of the city, but apparently all the important people know we have chickies. I guess I'll find out soon enough if I built my coop right. I wish I had a dog ;(
Wow! When I lived in London (another enlightened city where chickens are allowed) foxes were a big problem, but I never thought of them in the urban Bay Area. Maybe try some electical fencing? They have very low voltage for pets (had to put it up for my dogs--they kept digging out under the fence) and its not expensive. Just a couple wires running around the coop? Or there is a kind of electrical mesh you can buy on-line.
No offense at all, ncc. As I said, I just forgot about quarantining and the comments about the vet were just meant to help reassure Myhrr since the chickens had already been exposed.
I think the idea of having as many distractions as possible when the final introductions are made is an excellent idea. Chickens do fixate on things, but if you can break their concentration, you are half-way there in getting them to accept change.
There is nothing as priceless as a electric fence, you can do a fairly large yard for 100-150 dollars, charger, posts,wire everything easy as 1 2 3, and no more worries.
nc, that story is just TOO funny! i can hear you cussin her now!!!
myrrh, thanks ;-)
now, about that fox, are they night hunters? you can get a red light to keep them scared away. and in the day, well, there ought to be something that would scare them... do a forum search and see what they say in gardening...
do you have a gun of some sort, or darts? something to scare him when he looks at you that way? paintballs? then you would know if there was more than one...
I think I will take your suggestion and get one of the electric poultry nets. I guess 150 dollars isn't that much to pay for peace of mind.
Thanks, Myrrh
It is expensive, but not having to worry is really worth it. And you are going for quality of life, not economic realism, right?:0)
Well, having just looked at the price more closely, I am not so sure. $150 does not include the charger which is another $100. I'll have to look some more. When I decided to get chickens I remember thinking how cheap they would be compared to my horse and kitties. I can't seem to remember how I came to that conclusion.
Fi-Shock Super 525 Electric Fence Controller-Item # 92221
Model # SS-525CS $22.47
or
Fi-Shock Fence Charger 6 Mile
Item # 92223
Model # SS-550X
$49.00
Fi-Shock 1/4 Mile 17 Gauge Electric Fence Wire Item # 92230
Model # WC-1320 $14.98 roll
Fi-Shock Step-In Fence Post - WhiteItem # 105121
Model # A-48 $1.78 each
Item # 89395
4x4 pressure treated posts about 5 dollars
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productList&No=0&Ntt=electric%20fence%20charger&Ntk=i_products&N=0
The posts are about 40" tall plastic and are made with a spike and a foot ledge, already have notches for the wire at about 6" intervals. these are good for the straight runs
use the 4x4s for the corners, and each side of the gate, cut old garden hose in a 12" piece
slit it with a razor knife, slip wire through slit, and use for outside corners......... no cost
a 100x 100 lot would require 5 4x4 posts............................................................................................25.
step in posts 15' apart 6 per side= 24.................................................................................................. 43
wire, 1/4 mile is 1320 feet enough for 3 strands around your lot
dont buy the cheap aluminum wire, buy the galvanized
but just for fun lets say 2 rolls at 15 each................................................................................................30
for a total of ..........................................................................................................................................................$98.00
excluding the gate most can build one
and the charger a 6 mile cattle charger for ..................................................49.00..total of.$147.00
or the 525 charger ( what I use, remember you are still at or less than
1/2 a mile of total length of wire is a measilly ...............................................23 dollars..Total of..$121.00
and that is you have a wide open yard and have to buy every piece if you have nothing at home to use.
This message was edited Jun 20, 2008 10:39 PM
This message was edited Jun 20, 2008 10:41 PM
Hey, Myhrr--maybe you are looking at the kind for livestock? The ones for dogs cost about $50 including the charger and could cover 1/2 mile of wire, so you could sort of festoon it over your coop!
I run the wires at 6"-12"-18"-24"-and 32" with 32" being for people. I have thousands of dollars of fowl back there, and dont loose any to walking predators