Goodbye Yellow

[Big yellow]

Well, My poor yellow got hit by a car today. She didn't make it. We buried her where she took dust baths during the day, where we would watch how funny she was. My brother was pulling into the driveway, and he didn't see her. Yellow wasn't afraid of cars anymore because she's been around them her whole life. Anyways, I'm getting another chicken to keep Big red, my other chicken, company. Any Ideas as to how I could prevent this kind of thing from happening again? It was purely an accident.

 

[GitaBooks]

I'm really sorry to hear that.

I had a chicken that was hit by a car as well and ended up dying. We put up a fence that allowed the the rest of the flock to have the whole field (we have 10 acres) but that kept them off the drive-way and road. However, a few of my chickens have learned how to jump over this. We watch carefully for any animals (we have cats) when we pull in, as our animals tend not to be very car smart. Our dogs will actually run towards a vehicle.
I tried for a while making a warning sound whenever a moving vehicle passed the chickens, and it got their attention, but in the end it didn't work. You could try this, to let them know the car is a predator.

I would get a couple chickens, probably younger would be better (but fully feathered!). Introduce them slowly, at first keeping them in a separate pen until they are use to one another and the new birds recognize the area as their new territory (so at least 3 days, preferably a week or so). You can then let them in together when your hen is calm and perhaps distracted on food. Keep an eye on any bullying.

I hope everything works out well. Best of luck!