HOW CAN I INTRODUCE A NEW HEN INTO THE HEN RUN?

The ideal solution would be to reintroduce all the hens on neutral territory but that's usually impossible. Just sticking the hen into the run during the day may means that she gets severely pecked. "The pecking is to put the 'new' hen in its place in the peck order, unfortunately if the territory they share is small then the senior birds will keep bullying until the poor bird cowers each time they approach it, this makes matters worse," says David Bland, author of "Practical Poultry Keeping" (from www.sprcentre.co.uk). Treat the new hen with anti-peck spray and put her after dark in the hen house. Then keep an eye on her for the next day or two. If this doesn't work out, then take the new hen out and place her in somewhere like a garden shed. Then add two of the existing hens to the new hen's territory. Then put all three back. If a hen has been separated from the flock because of veterinary treatment or for some other reason, she will need re-introducing as if she was a stranger. She probably smells wrong.