New to keeping chickens

[Flummery]

You certainly can - but there WILL be fights! I should leave it to those who have successfully introduced new birds rather than be theoretical about it.

[Bramble-Poultry]

if you want to introduce new birds, you are best to do it at night time when they are roosting in their house. Slip the new ones into the house under the cover of darkness and they should settle - UNTIL THE MORNING. when you let them out in the morning, all hell will break loose for a few hours whilst they sort out a pecking order.

keep your eyes on them. its usually a lot better than it looks. Only interfere if you see blood being spilled as someone is obviously getting carried away. It is always better to introduce several in one go rather than one at a time. i tried putting one in on its own and they all ganged up on it, whereas if you put 4 in at once, then it spreads the fun around.

After a couple of days, it will settle down and you will wander what the fuss was all about. however, do keep your eyes on them for any signs of one particular bird being left out or picked upon. this one may need pulling out and putting in a run of its own to recover.

Try and choose birds of a similar size to your campines as well. if you go for bantams they will get a royal a*se kicking, whereas if you go for huge great cochins for example, then the campines might get a kicking of epic proportions. (not that i have found cochins to be violent, just using them as a size comparision)

Also, keep away from "game birds" as they were bred for fighting many years ago and have the tools to inflict a lot of damage.

On a separate note, keep on to you campines and try and breed a few as they are very hard to come by and you can get a good price for them. For example, look at this listing for 3 silver campine eggs. currently at £15 for 3 eggs, thats a fiver an egg!!!!

Bid4poultry.co.uk - 3 SILVER CAMPINE HATCHING EGGS (RARER THAN CHOCOLATE ORPINGTON) Auction, Buy

if you do manage to breed some and get hatching eggs, let us know!!!

[ford1990]

Yeah i've been amazed by the interest they've got on here! It's a shame aswell cause I had the last five hens and there was a cockeral left but i didn't want it because of the noise, maybe one day i'l get that field away from everyone! I could possibly get a male but i have heard they are really noisy. Thanks again for the help, P.S. I managed to get a side on photo if you want to look, it was a bit wet and i was looking down at her!

[Flummery]

They are gorgeous looking birds aren't they? No wonder there's a lot of interest in them.

[Eco-Chic]

Very pretty indeed.