I like to buy three new hens each year and the three newbies arrived on 15th April 2025.

With the introduction of any new birds, the pecking order must be reestablished, and it always takes a bit of time for things to settle down, for the others to get used to the new arrivals, and for flock harmony to be restored. I find it helps to separate the new hens from the rest of the flock, and for the first four days, I keep them apart in a cage in the chicken coop with food and water so that they have their own space and to help them get used to their new surroundings.

When the hens are younger, it is fairly easy to identify them as they normally have smaller crests but as they grow and get older, it becomes more difficult. I thought it would be interesting to be able to identify each hen so this year, I fitted an identifying ring on each of their legs before releasing them. The three new hens are number 021, 022 and 023 with red rings.

It is now the 15th May and today one of the new hens laid her first eggs (so 30 days later). It has taken about 4 weeks for them to settle in and get used to the other hens, and this has improved a lot in the last couple of days. For the first two weeks, they would spend most of the time on the perches, coming down to the ground for food and water but then going back up onto the perches. The third week they would spend most of the day on the rocks in the corner. Today was the first day they had all met me at the entrance.