Chicken died and only one left how many more chickens should I get?

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Thomas127

Thomas127

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We came back from holiday and the chicken house had blown over we found Heather underneath and her neck was crushed. I was so upset. I only have one left how many more should I get so that the new ones aren't picked on and my older chicken isn't bewildered?
 
Poor Heather, so sorry for your loss. First I would bolster your coop, so that doesn't happen again. Second you may want to see how your lone hen does before deciding on adding more. Sometimes it's best to find another around her age and size. Or to rehome her and start over with young birds that are raised together - so no integration issues come up.
 
Hello :frow and Welcome To BYC! So sorry about Heather. :hugs It will take awhile to get your older hen introduced to new flockmates, whether you get chicks (you'd need to wait until they are about the same size as the old bird) or older birds, (and you may have to do a health quarantine also), nice article from the Learning Center on adding to your flock https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock If your remaining hen goes broody, you might also consider either letting her hatch eggs (you would need to make plans for what to do with possible roos) or getting some day old chicks (works well if you can find sexed pullet chicks) to put under her. How many more birds you get would depend on what you have room for in your coop and how many chickens you want... may people prefer to keep at least three birds, so if they lose one they have at least two left in the flock.
 
Thank you so much everyone for your advice it's quite a blow losing a chicken as Heather was the first one I've lost. I'm going today to get two new pullets I hope that my older chicken won't bully them because there is two of them and they won't bully her because she's older but she's only 2 and a half so still young enough to tell them off. I don't have a cock so hatching wouldn't work but I think I would if I did have one.
 

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