Depressed hens. How can I help them?

[GracePoultry]

This is a great post. Good examples to back up your thoughts. I can admit when I'm wrong. I know some birds in the wild mate for life so it's not out of the question that chickens form strong bonds.

I have taken away a cockerel from a group that grew up together and they genuinely seemed much happier and more relaxed afterwards BUT this guy was a jerk and they were still young so obviously my experience is different than yours.

Your post was informative. I think that in this case it isn't what is happening to my flock, however nobody is going to know my flock but me. I think that your reply will still be useful to some chicken keepers as there are many cases in which the hens simply don't like their rooster. <3

 

[TOMTE]

I'm not one to humour the anthropomorphisation of animals, but one can only do so much to try and explain why their chickens are behaving the way they do through logic and lack of "human" emotion, before observing their chickens and seeing what they are displaying throught their behaviour.

Every time they have lost their chosen male (emphasis on the male bring the chosen by the hens male, not just one they tolerate) a shift in their behaviour is clearly visible. This has happened quite a few times here, but for the sake of simplicity, I'll just mention two separate events that have led me to the aforementioned conclusion.

About 2, 1 and a half years ago, I had two bantam pullets and one bantam cockerel. One of the pullets loved that cockerel, she was way closer to him than the other pullet. Apart from that cockerel, she would merely tolerate the presence of other birds. One day, the cockerel suddenly passed, most likely something heart-related. Said pullet was quite frantic for a few weeks, looking slightly "lost". Not really another way to put it. To this day, she hasn't formed any close relations with any other bird, she has accepted other males, but never had the same relationship.

The second event happened earlier this September. There was a fox attack, while two tribes/groups were free ranging. Both tribes lost one member each. The bantam tribe lost their head rooster. The LF tribe lost a low-ranking junior hen. In the case of the bantam tribe, the hens have yet to go back in lay (a short period of no eggs would be expected after a traumatic event). On the other hand, the LF tribe is currently producing a few eggs a week, and has been almost immediately after the attack. Their head rooster is still with them. Both tribes experienced the same traumatic event. The only difference is which bird they lost.

Here is an article written by a very experienced and helpful member of the forum. Article 'Do Poultry Mourn Over The Loss Of A Flock Mate?' https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/do-poultry-mourn-over-the-loss-of-a-flock-mate.67429/ .

Sure, not everything with chickens stems from emotion, but in my humble opinion, we shouldn't be so quick to disregard it completely, especially when it has something to do with such a key component to group/tribe/flock life, as in the case of the head rooster and senior hens

"Chickens experience emotion" =/= anthropomophisation.

Many animals mourn losses of family and friends and not all of them are what humans categorize as "hyper-intelligent" (ie elephants, whales, chimps, crows). If chickens can experience happiness/contentment, why not sadness?