Chicken might die of loneliness! Need help!

[calichiggin]

Hello, recently our silkie passed away and our barred rock is all alone. We are not sure if the chicken that died had a disease. Thats why we are hesitating on bringing in any new beings in. If we do bring is some new chickens, not sure if we should get chicks or a chicken closer to our chickens age. We don't want to leave her alone to long because i heard they can die of being alone. Please help

 

[DobieLover]

Hello, recently our silkie passed away and our barred rock is all alone. We are not sure if the chicken that died had a disease. Thats why we are hesitating on bringing in any new beings in. If we do bring is some new chickens, not sure if we should get chicks or a chicken closer to our chickens age. We don't want to leave her alone to long because i heard they can die of being alone. Please help

Sorry for you loss.
Was your silkie showing symptoms of being ill prior to passing?
How long ago did she die?
You can put a mirror in the coop with your lone BR. It supposedly makes them feel not so alone.
How big is your coop and run?

 

[calichiggin]

She looked and seemed fine. She passed yesterday. Our coop is 7 ft by 5ft. Its pretty big for 2 chickens... (one chicken now)

 

[DobieLover]

She looked and seemed fine. She passed yesterday. Our coop is 7 ft by 5ft. Its pretty big for 2 chickens... (one chicken now)

Do you have electric in it? If not, can you safely run an extension cord to it?
If so, I suggest partitioning off a corner of the coop to make a brooder out of it. Then get a brooder plate or rig up a MHP and get three chicks and brood them right in the coop so that they will grow up in full view of your lone hen. If you do it this way, the chicks will keep her company while they grow. Then, when they are about 4 weeks old, you can lock the hen out of the coop and let the chicks into the rest of the coop to learn the lay of the land for several hours then let the hen back it.
I would make a small enough door in the brooder that the chicks can go back and forth between the brooder area and the coop but the hen can't get in the brooder. They will integrate with her very quickly this way.

 

[calichiggin]

Do you have electric in it? If not, can you safely run an extension cord to it?
If so, I suggest partitioning off a corner of the coop to make a brooder out of it. Then get a brooder plate or rig up a MHP and get three chicks and brood them right in the coop so that they will grow up in full view of your lone hen. If you do it this way, the chicks will keep her company while they grow. Then, when they are about 4 weeks old, you can lock the hen out of the coop and let the chicks into the rest of the coop to learn the lay of the land for several hours then let the hen back it.
I would make a small enough door in the brooder that the chicks can go back and forth between the brooder area and the coop but the hen can't get in the brooder. They will integrate with her very quickly this way.

That is a good idea... but if the chicken that died had a disease, could the chicken we have now get the disease?

 

[DobieLover]

That is a good idea... but if the chicken that died had a disease, could the chicken we have now get the disease?

If you never saw signs of illness, she likely wasn't ill. If a bird dies from an illness, you generally see signs of it.
How is the BR acting?

 

[calichiggin]

If you never saw signs of illness, she likely wasn't ill. If a bird dies from an illness, you generally see signs of it.
How is the BR acting?

She was acting normal, running around being her crazy self.