I have been keeping two hens in the suburbs for a while, and I just lost one. The one hen that is left, a RIR, just over a year old, is doing pretty well so far alone, just a little jumpy, but I imagine she will be happier with company. Is that what you've found, or can a chicken be happy alone? If I do find a new hen to add to the flock, any advice on how to incorporate her? How do I make sure they won't have diseases to pass? And is there any particular breed you'd recommend or avoid with a RIR? Thanks!
I had a lone chicken for a while as all the others were taken by a fox. She was ok - ate and drank etc but I felt she needed company and soon got 4 more. We put them all together straight away as I trust my supplier who has the birds from chicks and has never given us any with disease in the past.
Our RIR are very calm birds. I don't think there would be any trouble putting two together. If it were only one or two birds being added to a huge flock then you might have a problem. The two might fight at first, but I would doubt there would be too much of a problem. We have SLW and rocks with our RIR, but they have been together since day one. I don't think there would be any specific breed that would do better or worse, it would just depend on the individual bird.
