Do you have a lone hen?

[Qi Chicken]

We have a flock of 15. One welsummer is currently in the house recovering and the other is out in the yard with everyone else. Except she is not with everyone else. She spends her entire day wandering around alone near the coop. All the others move in a pack here and there. There are stragglers, and sometimes one is alone for awhile, but this one is alone ALL the time. She is definitely low on the totem pole but not the very bottom I don't think. I don't think she really misses her breed mate, I never noticed that they hung out all that much before. So do you all have lone hens?

 

[b.hromada]

Lets bump this and see if we can get you some answers.

 

[PunkinPeep]

Did all your chickens grow up together? Or did some of them come in later? Or younger generations?

I see something like this sometimes with latecomers. I see it even worse with males. They seem to have a harder time integrating into the flock.

 

[werecatrising]

I have a buff orpington that hangs out in the back part of the yard by herself. She roosts with everyone else at night, but that's about it.

 

[fl_deb]

I have a very sweet EE that tags along, as long as the RIRs will let her, then they will chase her off and away from them, from time to time. I frequently see her by herself, while the other girls have gone to the other end of the yard. They all grew up together, brought them home on same day same box, etc, but I think the RIRs think it is her fault that the other EE had to leave, they didn't know, that I knew, he was a Roo, and so, He had to go!

I have acquired another bird but she is quite a bit younger and is still in quaratine, but I have just about decided to pull my EE from the flock, put her in with baby first, then remerge the two of them so that the RIRs no longer have a single target! It would be 2 on 2 again. LOL Also, because baby seems very lonely and I am not sure she will make it for 2 months by herself as a kitchen chicken.

I will keep on trying to keep everyone happy in the meantime.

 

[HHandbasket]

Yes, Martha The Mole (as we call her) is our welsummer & she's also a bit of a loner and seemingly so by her own accord. She's my sweetest bird & we have her in the house with us tonight in a dog crate while we're treating a wound on her face and keeping her away from the rest of the flock so she doesn't get an infection. However, 95% of the time, she's outside in the yard. Sometimes she will dustbathe with the rest of the flock, sometimes not, but I often see her kind of doing her own thing. Sometimes, one of the other birds (usually Rhoda the RIR) will come and try to hang with her, but it never lasts for very long. She's not unfriendly or anything, just kinda a loner-chicken.

 

[Qi Chicken]

Well, I guess it's not all that unusual then? They all came together peeping in the box. She doesn't seem really sick so I guess I'll just let her roam!

 

[warren]

My first 2 hens did not get on together very well as the one bullied the other badly. The bully used to go to bed in the coop and the other in a rabbit hutch which they used as a nest box. During the day they used to avoid each other. I was not too sad when the bully died.

 

[tammye]

I have one very happy hen that is almost always my her self, she has always been that way, she even roosts alone. She will come to me when I call her name and likes to be near me but no touching.