Poultry question

[gcvmom]

We have three chickens/hens. A biologist friend rescued a wandering Silver pheasant that had been loose for a while in a neighborhood in another town and is looking to find a home for it (also a hen). Does anyone know if these birds can coexist in the same coop/run/yard with other birds? I'm waiting to hear back from my friend on the bird's disposition -- no idea how wild or tame it is at this point.

 

[Marguerite]

Yes they can, but there could be differences between the temperament of the birds. The hens may attack the pheasant or vice versa, so you will need to watch them carefully when you put them in together and be prepared to separate them if necessary.

I got some fertile peacock eggs some years ago and one of my broody bantams hatched out a peacock chick. Sadly though, I had not removed mother and egg from the coop and the other birds killed the chick before I could segregate them. The chick was too different for the flock to tolerate.

I gave a rooster to some friends who had hens and their hens scalped the rooster. They gave him back so he could recover.

I would suggest you try it, but be ready for whatever happens. It could well work out okay though.

Marg

 

[gcvmom]

Thanks for that, Marg.

I figured I would have to gradually introduce them rather than toss the poor bird into the mix and cross my fingers. We'll see what my friend can tell me about how it behaves around humans and go from there. Our coop is a large converted children's playhouse, so I could easily screen off a portion of it to accommodate the newcomer while everyone makes their acquaintances.

 

[DammitJanet]

We had ducks and chickens who lived together happily. Actually one of my hens hatched the duck eggs because the mommy duck simply couldnt sit and hatch a setting of ducklings. Funny thing though when the baby ducks got old enough to come out of the brood pen we had them in and go out on the yard. We had a little kiddie pool there for the ducks and when the babies went to get in the mommy hen went foolish trying to get the babies out of the water...lmao. She knew baby chicks couldnt do that but couldnt understand how baby ducks could!

 

[Shari]

I've raised several different types of birds together with minimal problem. Just let them get used to each other safely. Once they are old hat, they don't notice anymore.

We had a banty hen hatch quail eggs. Looked so funny with her brood of teeny tiny chicks. And guineas are lousy mothers here (can you say difficult child mom?) so I've stuck guinea eggs under hens and they've hatched out guineas with their chicks. They've never seemed to care what comes out of those eggs...