i'm northants. The lady (Madras) who was left on her own is a Rhode rock black. For about 4 days it was so sad to watch her she came into the house 90% of the time to have company either from me, the dogs or the cats. So yesterday we went to a friends animal rescue and they have ex-battery hens there so we took 5 new little friends for Maddy (Madras). We put the 5 in a large shed with Maddy outside, gosh she kept running round the shed chatting away to them and making noises I had never heard before. We let her meet for 5 mins and she rushed in and all went very well. Then seperated again till 9pm bed time where we put them all together in the hen house. All went well. They came out this morning, fed and watered well, had a run about, had the odd peck and the 5 have now gone back into the hen house as if to say that was lovely being outside but were not used to it yet. Bless em. We know it'll take 2-3 weeks before they truly settle but Maddy now has friends and seems so much happier. The new five are Tikka, Bhuna, (Madras - the original) Eggwina and Posh & Pecks.