OK to leave 14 week old pullet by herself?

[smurray]

Hi all,

I need to give up a cockerel because we can’t have him in the city. I think we can do this easily enough, but the problem is that his lady friend would be left alone and I’m worried that it would be very bad for her. They are both 14 weeks old, raised together. He’s a black australorp, she’s a buff brahma. We’ve got six other hens that are full grown and we haven’t integrated the two groups because the brahma is still too small to defend herself. If we gave the BA away, then the brahma would have to be alone for 3-4 weeks (maybe more) until she’s big enough to go with the other hens, and when she does get put in with the other hens, she’ll be the odd one out.

What do you guys think? Should we give the brahma away with the BA cockerel? If we did that, we’d ask to trade them for 1 or 2 BA hens. Or am I just being paranoid and the brahma will be fine by herself?

Thanks for your suggestions!

 

[Mrs. K]

I think giving the pair away would be best for all. Introducing a single bird to a flock is very difficult, and the forum here is full of very dismal results of trying to do that.

By getting a pair of hens, it will be much easier to introduce them together, life is always easier with a friend

MrsK

ps, when I reread your post you said that you would get 1 or 2 BA. There would be no advantage to getting 1 BA over keeping the BA you have. The big difficulty is in introducing a single bird to a flock.

 

[smurray]

Ok, thanks for your input. I see there's no use in getting replacements unless I get two.

 

[aggie9296]

Agree with the 2 at a time. Give away both and get 2 more hens (or more) would probably be less stressful for all involved.