Adding older birds to a young flock

[Kelly1]

I have 8 origional chickens, 2 roosters, and 6 hens. They hatched aroung the 1st of June. Recently we decided to add to our chickens and got 4 older hens, some as old as 1 year. These hens are laying my origional are not (yet). We added them into the chicken coop and kept them together for 3 days and then decided to let them out and run the yard ( free range). Only one of the new hens returned to the coop in the evening and is the only one who has joined to the flock. The other 3 are living in the bushes and doing their own thing. They are very shiddish. I am wondering if anyone has any ideas for trying to get these 3 back into the flock and live in the coop, instead of the bushes. We have tried to catch them at night, but they always seem to get away.

Thanks

 

[chickenma]

The only thing you can do now is run after them and catch them.
They will not be safe in the dark.
Keep them in a coop for a while 3 weeks/ 6weeks until they are used to their new place.
Then after those weeks they should be fine and know were they belong.
Good luck catching them

 

[Kelly1]

Thank you for the advice. I am hoping that we will be able to catch them. They are starting to come around the yard some but still not interacting with the other birds.

 

[katrinag]

Did you seperate the new birds to make sure the are healthy?