Introducing More Chickens to the Flock!

I have a very good friend who was inspired to start raising chickens at the same time that she had her second child (only 22 months after the first.) She had visions of tending to her flock with her baby strapped to her and her toddler gleefully bringing in fresh eggs from the coop.

We smiled and offered assistance and luck, but were not surprised five short months later to get the call that she was so over these chickens. When I had a toddler and a newborn I didn’t even want to take care of the two dogs I’d had for the last 10 years. Taking care of chickens is not a small job.

So, I happily took some of her flock off of her hands this morning. I was contemplating getting some chicks only yesterday, so I figured why not… now we have 30 hens and get almost two dozen eggs a day.

Below is is photo of their new temporary digs. We always quarantine new hens for the first week, and introduce our chickens to each other slowly. The less stress on them, the higher the egg production. Follow the link for a full write up on how we do it.

Over time we have set up our hoop house as an area that we can separate chickens when needed - the nesting boxes are movable, so we can move them out when we need to break a broody hen or two or back in when we want to separate girls for any reason. I have used this for broody hens, introducing rescued chickens, and for trying to identify older chickens who may not be laying eggs any more.

So right now we have six new hens that have just started laying. We will keep them there for a few days, and then open the small door between that and the main run and coop and let them peck it out. If it gets too vicious we will separate them a bit longer. We have two new Buff Orpingtons, a Blue Wyandotte, Barred Rock and two Rhode Island Reds. I love Orpingtons - they are such nice birds and very calm. They tend to be a little broody, but they are just so calm that I’ll take them over a lot of other breeds. Check out my breed breakdown here…

I am excited to see how these girls love their new home.