Have a 6-month old hen who lost all her mates and is alone -- what to do?? need advice!

[lynnpm]

We raised four female baby chicks and sadly lost three of them over time (dogs and a hawk) and are down to just our one leghorn. She is all alone in a small coop and run built for 4 max. I let her out at least once a day to run around the backyard and give her treats (corn and cheese are her two favorites), but I am worried she is going to get too bored and lonely soon. I planned to get new chicks in the springtime and to introduce them to her gradually as they got old enough to go outside. But until then, I am not sure what to do.

I have a neighbor with 8 hens and a large coop who would take her but I can't figure out a way to safely integrate her to that flock. (I could bring her over in a dog crate but think she would go crazy in there and get too cold at night. It's freezing here in CT, so I have a heating pad on low in her coop at night to emulate the heat of another chicken. One thought I had was asking around to see if I could "borrow" a hen from someone to live with mine until spring. Maybe one that's low in the pecking order of another flock and gets picked on a lot? I don't know about integrating just two hens with each other though. Would they likely fight?

Thanks so much for ANY advice on these issues!

 

[cluckcluckgirl]

Try to gradually introduce a couple more chickens to her. I would suggest keeping her and not giving her to a neighbor, as when you introduce the new chicken(s) she would have lived there the longest and would probably be the top hen from there on out (that worked for me). I had a hen that survived an attack while everyone else died. She was the bottom of the pecking order, but when we did that, she assumed top hen.

 

[Thespoiledchicken]

I would see if you can purchase another hen around the same age as yours from someone local. She definitely needs a friend and will be very lonely without one- chickens are flock animals. It would be best to introduce her to a single hen and I'm sure within a few days they will BFF's.

If she was to go over to your neighbors it would be hard to introduce just the 1 hen, she will get picked on for sure. It's always best to introduce a couple new chickens at one time to an established group.

Try placing an ad on CL for a hen and see what happens.

Good Luck!
Trish

 

[lynnpm]

Thank you so much. I have not had great luck on craigslist so far. I just tried to post in the buy/sell/trade area here on this site and it won't let me. It's turning out not to be so easy to find a pullet for sale in my area (CT) in January.....