Can a chicken actually get depressed?

[Tasmin Kalida]

So, here's what's going on. I have a chicken that got attacked by an opossum a couple of months ago. I didn't think she would make it, but she managed to pull through! Since I had her in a separate enclosure for a while, I guess the other chickens "forgot" her. Anyway, I was trying to get her integrated back in for a couple of weeks, but she kept getting attacked. So I finally decided just to stop trying that way. We got some chicks, and I was thinking I could put her back in with the main flock when I put the chicks in so it would be more than one against all of them. I think my plan will work, but now I think the chicken is getting depressed or something because she has not been very active and is slightly lethargic-looking. just moving slowly. She has been away from our main flock for about a month (we have her in a cage next to the chicks). Does anybody know how to help her? Thanks!

 

[Eggcessive]

Yes chickens will get depressed if they are alone. We had a hen who was ill and separated for over a month. We had to place her on the other side of out chicken fence with food and water, but she could see the others and felt like she was a part of the flock. I would bring her into the coop at night where she would sleep in a wire dog crate at night, and the would go back across the fence the next morning. After a few months she was allowed back into the flock.

If you can do that or place her in a wire dog crate with her own food and water, and keep her with the others during the day, that would work as well. That is how I usually separate sick hens anyway. Good luck.