Chicken behaviour after losing a rooster?

[CraigH91]

Hi, this is my first post so I apologise if I am posting this in the wrong place.

I went to let my chickens out of their coop this morning and found my rooster, Boots, was huddled in the corner all limp and not moving. I got him to my local vet who said that his body temperature was very low and his crop seemed really hard. She kept him in for monitoring and gave him fluids, heat etc... But I just got a call to say that he didn't make it

My question is will the hen that I have left suffer because of the loss? Do I need to keep an eye on her or do anything different now? It was just the two of them and she followed Boots everywhere, he was always feeding her tasty things that he found around the garden and looking out for her. She's currently lying under a bush at the back of the lawn in a little mound that she's dug up but seems a little quiet.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[redsoxs]

I think she will suffer the loss not so much in that it was him or that he was a rooster, but that she is now solo. Chickens do well in groups but not well singly. You might consider get her a friend.

 

[aart]

I'd want to know..... what did the male die from and is it contagious.
Getting a couple more birds might be in order....if you have the room to integrate and there's not a disease lurking.

 

[CraigH91]

I've completely cleared out, scrubbed down and rinsed the coop and filled it with fresh bedding. Also given it a once over with some mite powder just to be sure. Hopefully it's nothing contagious...

Thank you for the replies! These were my first chickens so I've never had to integrate newcomers before. Is it easy to do?

 

[chickens really]

Buy two young Pullets/hens....Will make it easier to introduce the birds...Either do a quarintine or not? No one really follows the proper bio-hazard directions anyways so with that said, put the new birds in the coop and your old bird in a look no touch pen for about a week...Let her out and they will peck and do all the pecking order stuff that happens but they will figure it out...
Sorry about the loss of your Rooster...

Cheers

 

[aart]

I've completely cleared out, scrubbed down and rinsed the coop and filled it with fresh bedding. Also given it a once over with some mite powder just to be sure. Hopefully it's nothing contagious...

Thank you for the replies! These were my first chickens so I've never had to integrate newcomers before. Is it easy to do?

I would assume your vet gave the bird thorough going over to ascertain whether he had any external parasites.....and maybe even did a post mortem to look for viruses/bacterial involvement. Your remaining bird could be carrying the same disease, but have no symptoms, that killed the male.
Did the vet tell you that you needed to dust for mites?
Like wise new birds could carry pests and diseases in with them while appearing to be healthy.

Consider biological/medical quarantine:
BYC Medical Quarantine Article
Poultry Biosecurity
BYC 'medical quarantine' search

Read up on integration..... BYC advanced search>titles only>integration
This is good place to start reading:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock