reintegration

This summer, we ordered four chicks and received an additional surprise cockerel. Our new pullets and cockerel are now seven months old and integrated with our existing flock of one-year-old Black Australorps. One of our more dominant hens never warmed up to our cockerel. She adamantly refuses...

Our largest, 2 year girl had to come inside for about 7 days. She had a tubing process at the vet to remove an impaction/blockage. She's doing great now, but the first hour she was reintroduced to the flock she beat up the head hen, then was immediately put back in her place and is at the...

We had a broody hen and we decided to switch the eggs under her with chicks. She took to them right off no problem. But we had one other chicken who became aggressive and wanted to kill the chicks. Our Momma chicken is not great at defending them, so we separated her into a smaller run within...

Hello, My BO recently recovered from a vague illness that had her staying in a temp controlled environment (about 68 degrees) for about a week. Since she seems to be back to 100%, I've been letting her free-range with the girls for the last two days, in temps ranging from the 50s-60s. Today...

Hello, Over our first year and a half of chicken-keeping, we've had several illnesses/injuries that ended up splitting our flock due to re-integration issues. We had 5 girls in our large coop/run and then 2 hens who had healed from long-term issues in a smaller coop/run alongside the main one...

Penny for your thoughts? My 17 m/o EE is recovering from a few rough days: first, a thin-shelled egg broke inside her that she struggled to expel (but did after a few epsom salt soaks and calcium supplements), then her crop backed up, which led to an all-day stay at the local vet's office. She...

A couple months back we had to being our BO pullet into our basement infirmary coop due to unspecified illness. Through treatment (Corid, amoxicillin, special diet) we were able to bring her back and she even started laying beautiful eggs (that we sadly couldn't eat re: antibiotics)...

I have 13 chickens - 5 established, year old Barred Rock hens who are very chill, and 7 chickens who are about 12 weeks old (2 easter egger hens, 2 faverolle hens, 3 black australorp hens, and 1 black australorp rooster). About a month ago, when I first tried integrating my new chickens with the...

After some brutal pecking that led to surgery, and now a month of isolation for treatment for one of my cream legbar girls I have decided to get rid of my three bully chickens (RIRXAustralorp) from my flock, however I’m keen to maintain the same sized flock. Aside from the bullies I have 2...

We had three roosters but kept the two younger ones in a pen by themselves as we only had 10 hens. Long story short, the original rooster was very aggressive towards my husband, then one day attacked my face when I reached to pick up a bucket I'd dropped. The next rooster was a brute and my...

New Mumma to nine six-month old ladies: three RI Reds, three Rocks, three Buffs. All raised together from days old, first three months in our spare bedroom (MA Winters/Springs are cold!) before transitioning to their outdoor coop/run. All are laying beautifully. A few weeks ago I noticed one of...

We got 6 day-old chicks in January-one each of the following: ameracauna, buff Orpington, barred rock, silkie, Rhode Island Red, and a Polish. After a few weeks in the brooder we noticed that the Polish was being pecked on the head. She had a small sore and was missing feathers. We isolated her...