Ok,

so you are on your way home with your new girls, what happens now ?

Well i can promise you, you are in for a few years of fun with them, First thing to remember moving to a new home can be quite stressful. They may be a bit flighty and skitish, they do settle down I promise. Depending in what time of day you take them home will depend on where you will put them when you get them home.

If it is nearly dark, then put them straight into the chicken coop and close the doors and leave them till the morning, if they have had a long journey it may be helpful to put a drinker in the hen house so they can get a drink, This needs only to be in there on the first evening.

If it is still daytime then put them in their hen house but leave the door open to enable them to come out into their run. Personally I would leave them alone until its night time, just to give them time to settle in and become accustomed to their new surroundings and each other. Come nightfall you will probably find your hens still sitting outside. You will, more than likely, have to catch them and put them in the coop. This is not uncommon, it will take them a few nights to work out where they sleep, once they have settled in you find they go to bed on their own, and all you need to do is close the door to the henhouse. Once the hens are going to bed on their own at night it will be now safe to let them out of the run, if you wish, safe in the knowledge that they can now find their way to bed in evening.

Over the next few weeks you may see them pecking each other, again this is quite normal as they are establishing the pecking order between them. This kind of behaviour settles down in time. Although the top hen will give the other hens a peck now and then just to let them kmow she is still in charge...... Bit like at home really :O

Jo's top tip

While your hens are settling in and are being kept in the run, when you take some mixed corn to them for a treat, put the mixed corn in a tin or something that makes a noise and shake the tin before you throw the corn on the floor. They will get to know the sound and that it means a treat is coming. This means that when they are roaming around the garden and you need to get them back in the run, just shake your tin of corn and they should come running, throw the corn into the run and hopefully they will follow into the run and you can close the door.