Author: Anna Hess

What to expect when adding new chickens into a flock

Intermingled flock

Assuming you’re not willing to dispatch old hens, egg numbers inevitably decline to the point where you’re tempted to integrate new hens into the flock. But will they get along? What constitutes normal pecking-order-establishment and what is an early warning sign of pecked-to-death?

Unfortunately, new and old hens are very unlikely to intermingle in serene harmony from the very beginning. There will be pounces and squawks and some of your hens may run off and turn into loners. Meanwhile, even though you’re likely to get eggs for a day or two (since those eggs were already in production), stressed hens are likely to stop laying for a while soon thereafter.

In a perfect situation, the establishment of a new group dynamic peters out after a few days, leaving the henhouse mostly peaceful. But if you see any of the following behaviors, you should keep a closer eye on the flock and consider separating out the bottom-rung birds:

  • Hens hiding with their face in a corner for hours on end.
  • Hens roosting for the night somewhere far away from the main flock. (Off to the edge of the same perch is alright.)
  • Hens with backs and/or heads pecked bare. (If you see blood, separate the hen immediately!)

Fresh eggs

And then, slowly but surely, serenity will return. At last, you’ll be rewarded with the chickenkeeper’s favorite sight — a nest full of freshly laid eggs!

Grazing chickens with cows

Chickens cleaning up spilled feed

What’s the recipe for ultra-low chicken feed costs? In the spring, at least, our neighbor’s flock barely wants to touch anything other than high-energy (and cheap) scratch feed because they have so much greenery and so many bugs to harvest out of the wild.

Feeding the cows

It doesn’t hurt that she also keeps cows, who sometimes spill a little feed, always have hay handy, and attract lots of worms to their patties. The goal is for the chickens to at least pay for themselves, and in the spring I’d say they definitely do.

Why do roosters crow?

Crowing rooster

Did you ever wonder why roosters crow? Cliff Notes version: Their goal isn’t to wake the farmer up in the morning.

Just like the song birds who drop by your bird feeder, male chickens use their songs to alert other roosters of their territory. So we shouldn’t be surprised to find that the most dominant rooster is the first to crow in the morning, with later crowers coming in descending order down the dominance hierarchy.

But why in the morning while city slickers are trying to get a little hard-earned rest? Scientists have figured out the how of this behavior — circadian rhythms within the chicken’s body tell them when to crow, even when they’re stuck in total darkness for up to a month at a time. As for the why — maybe hens just like it that way….