DW was not about to give up. She wanted to get a new bird or some chicks immediately. I think that DW was primarily concerned with finding a friend for our remaining hen, so we purchased a 6 month old barred rock pullet for $10. Our pullet is 3 months old.
In the picture, our surviving pullet and I are standing outside looking into the chicken tractor. The new-comer is getting ready to strike at the unfamiliar bird. Both pullets are puffing themselves up for a fight. The new pullet is really much bigger, perhaps a pound heavier.
Over the next week or two, we hope they come to terms with each other.
Another thing I've learned is that DW and I have somehow committed to finding a way to keep some version of a free-ranging flock. We will do what we can to give them a relatively safe home, but I suspect we will eventually be picking the breed based on its ability to survive the free-range lifestyle. In other words, regardless the losses, we won't build a traditional coop with buried wire fencing, etc. Instead, we will work out the coop design, property fencing and breed in a sort of evolutionary progression. For example, we want to collect eggs but we are not going to lock the chickens up to make collection easier. The tractor's nesting boxes are going to have to be so appealing that most eggs get laid in the tractor. This may mean keeping track of who lays in the tractor and breeding that hen, etc.
I don't know if this is possible, but this seems to be the sort of goal we have.
