[alan m]

Hi every one, my 3 RIR ex bats settled in ok still laying on average 1 egg per day, not bad considering i wasn`t expecting any for at least 10 days. A friend has offered me a Speckledy pol ( about 17weeks old) to go with my girls will this bird attack my ex bats- it looks a lot larger (probably due to its fearthers) still using layers mash how much grit/ oyster shell do they need, should I change to pellets?  we are feeding with organic feed, hen house and run moved onto new grass daily. alan

[Rosemary]

Hi, Alan

Congratulations on the ex-battery hens. It's very unlikley that they are RIR - it would be very unusual for a pure breed to be used in a battery system. They are more likely to be a hybrid specifically bred for intensive systems.

If you introduce a new hen, there will inevitably be some scrapping until the pecking order is extablished - who turns out to be top hen, who knows. I think it's more likely that that a single, young hen going into an established group of three is going to get a hard time. If you go ahead, it will be easier if you can keep them seperate but able to see each other for a week or so - we corn our together through the wire so they get used to seeing each other. Mix them for the first time at night after they have gone to roost, ideally in new surroundings so everyone is in a new place.

We give our hens free access to mixed grit in a hopper and let them help themselves. If you change to pellets, do it gradually. We did use mash but it was so wasteful we changed to pellets. In a less intensive system, pellets are fine.

Hope this helps,

Rosemary

[alan m]

Hi Rosemary, thank you for the advice, the speckedly is currently living in a bachelorette pad adjacent to the main hen house separate run attached to main run so that they can see each other, currently the head `Honcho`out of our ex batts is the smallest (just like my other half) lol hopefully will introduce her to them on sunday at bed time..alan