- May 27, 2014
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One of our two Speckled Sussex hens is currently in a pet emergency clinic and not expected to make it through the day. Aside from that sadness we're not sure what to expect for our remaining hen. We hand raised them together and in their 2 years they have never been apart. Is this sort of loss something they adapt to quickly? Seeing a lone backyard chicken this morning was definitely a sad sight. Are we simply a pair of anthropomorphizing sappy pet owners or is it definitely in the best interests of our remaining girl to have some new companions soon? Her morning cry sounded a bit distressed (sadly our girls have always been a bit loud about wanting to be let out of their coop once the sun gets bright) but so far she hasn't been calling for her sister a ton.
We were thinking of getting a couple of chicks (both for her and us) and weren't sure of the best way to integrate them with our current hen. Would it be best to attempt to find another 2 yr old chicken that happens to need a good home? We'd prefer to hand raise a couple new chicks but we definitely want to do whatever will make integration with our current hen the smoothest. We love our Sussex so we'd definitely try and stick with the same breed. Our girl has been a bit broody in the past so we're hoping she may be excited to jump into the role of mother hen, but she's not sooo broody that we could sneakily convince her the new chicks were her own (this worked for my mother in law many years ago).
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
We were thinking of getting a couple of chicks (both for her and us) and weren't sure of the best way to integrate them with our current hen. Would it be best to attempt to find another 2 yr old chicken that happens to need a good home? We'd prefer to hand raise a couple new chicks but we definitely want to do whatever will make integration with our current hen the smoothest. We love our Sussex so we'd definitely try and stick with the same breed. Our girl has been a bit broody in the past so we're hoping she may be excited to jump into the role of mother hen, but she's not sooo broody that we could sneakily convince her the new chicks were her own (this worked for my mother in law many years ago).
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
