[deepinthewoods]

totally unnecesary castle.

[Castle Farm]

What worried she might leave again Wooods ?

I post in here to give advice on subjects I know about, bit like Robert, but if you dissagree with a stupid post by a member your in the wrong.

Please only post advice if you know what your talking about.

[deepinthewoods]

offering advice is one thing, being patronising, condemnatory and rude is another.

[in the hills]

CF - Your replies show that you have much valuable knowledge and experience, as have many others on here. I think maybe the way you have phrased your replies over the last couple of days may have been taken the wrong way .... sure you are just trying to be helpful.


I think that your facilities/set up maybe on a much larger scale than many peoples on here and so people cannot always match your methods of isolation or indeed raise all their own stock to ensure a closed system.


Cross posted with you CF - no not in the wrong at all. You did post after one of my replies yesterday and I wasn't sure if you disagreed with me or the previous poster but your response could have been taken as a little blunt or however you would like to phrase it. I don't mind at all if someone disagrees with me. I don't claim to be an expert and I am always willing to learn. As a farmer friend of mine says (who I do believe knows his stuff) a good stock keeper is never an expert but always willing to listen and learn.

[Dan]

I post in here to give advice on subjects I know about, bit like Robert, but if you dissagree with a stupid post by a member your in the wrong.

Please only post advice if you know what your talking about.

And please only post if you can do so without calling other members 'stupid', being patronising or festooning your post with sarcasm:

This goes against all principles of poultry keeping, but hey! why should I worry about it they are not my birds and I don't give a fig for animal welfare.

I know you don't agree with the decision about Robert, and it seems to me that your posts in recent days have been deliberately provocative.

We absolutely welcome your experience and advice, but please try to offer it in a way that members will respect, and that reflects well on you. If your primary concern is the welfare of animals then it's pointless offering good advice if it isn't heeded because of the way it's delivered.

Thanks,

Dan

[Castle Farm]

OK! How can I put this that does'nt sound patronising or sarcastic.

What Plums advised was wrong on so many levels, one of them being to cause un-necessary suffering to poultry by putting in new birds with old.

 How do you tell someone they are doing that without them taking offence?

Lovely to hear from you Castle Farm, your comments are always so helpful

That was, in my opinion provocative. She backtracked on her next post after being told she was wrong, as it seemed she didn't just pop them in after dark, but came up with a spare coop.

This site is for 'Smallholders' who need the right answer first time, as it effects the welfare of animals and poultry.
If you want to take advice from people who don't know the correct way to deal with a problem be it on your own heads.

One thing for sure. The next time someone asks this question they should know what the answer is.

[Moleskins]

Right, I'm at the other end of the scale to Castle Farm, he / she has hundreds of hens, I have 5 none of which are laying and I want to introduce 2 more which are laying. Purely and simply to get some eggs as I have no idea how long it will be before my 'point of lay' hens see the point in laying.
I have one hen house.  How do I go on ?

[deepinthewoods]

i would erect a temporary fence/divider in the run. put 3 of the original hens one side, add the 2 new ones to the other 2, leave them like that all day, then let them all go in a t night together. you might have to seperate in the morning again,judge it on  how the bullying is. this technique has worked well for me in the past, i cant abide watching the violence of introductions!!

[Dan]

OK! How can I put this that does'nt sound patronising or sarcastic.

Just the way you did, thanks.

Lovely to hear from you Castle Farm, your comments are always so helpful

That was, in my opinion provocative.

It was provocative, and plums shouldn't have said it, but it was also in response to your first post in this thread, which was equally unhelpful to the OP. Had your first post contained some advice based on your knowledge and experience we wouldn't be here.

If we can get back to the poultry that would be grand. 

[in the hills]

Moleskins - there is another thread in this section on this matter.  I would do as DITW suggests but I also wire the indoor section if this is possible. They are completely separate but can see /smell each other - no physical contact allowed  . Of course it won't prevent spread of disease/parasites ..... I am assuming you do not have facilities to isolate.  New and old hens have own food/water hoppers - no competition.


Hens can be very spiteful/territorial so anything to reduce stress and hence happy hens. Good welfare= better / faster laying.


In my opinion. 

[Moleskins]

Thank you for the advice, the reading I had done previously led me to do this.
The house has a small run attached to it, I put the new hens in the cardboard box they were fetched in into the run and opened the box. This was just before locking up time, at their own pace the two new hens came out and there was a few fisticuffs, the box provided a bit of cover for any hen who wanted to dodge round the corner out of the way.
I then ushered them into the house and left them 'til the next day when they came out they were fine. Two weeks later we see the very odd scuffle but there has never been any serious problems, no blood, no feathers flying etc.
What I didn't appreciate is the infection risk, positive forum posts though have wised me up to this for next time.

[Daisy-at-the-dairy]

Seems to me that plums was simply giving her experience and what worked for her, which is fair enough. CF clearly has much knowledge and experience to contribute but there's really no need to phrase it in such a way that people feel small and stupid. And addressing an adult as "my girl" is rude and patronising, whether you know more about chickens than they do or not.


I hope the original questioner hasn't been put off keeping chickens by all this sniping as it's really a peaceful and pleasant activity with many nice people involved.


Off to hide behind the sofa now.

[Possum]

Moleskins,


Thanks for sharing your experience with us. I'm about to integrate 3 bantams with my two remaining utility hens and I'm quite worried about it. It's nice to know that these small scale methods do work and that the new hens shouldn't have too much of a hard time.