Helping chickens deal with loss

[Catmoose1347]

My two Wyandottes were best friends. They did absolutely everything together. They never fought, even going into the hormonal/teenager phase. About an hour ago, a coyote killed one of them. The other is seriously distressed without her buddy and is just standing there looking around and clucking in a very high-pitched voice. She's not even eating, which is very unusual.

I don't know what to do. She's not taking this well at all. Will she get over it, or can she die?

 

[bobthebunny]

Aw poor thing.

I would think she would eventually get over it like you or me might get over something but while she's still sad I would give her a lot of attention. Good luck poor baby

 

[Catmoose1347]

I'm also worried about her socializing with everybody else. Those two basically hung out together and ignored the others. Now, she's alone, she has no other friends, and she's at the very bottom of the pecking order.

In the meantime, I'll give her lots of attention to distract her.

 

[Catmoose1347]

She seems better today, thankfully. She's still going to all their usual hang-out places and looking for Mango.

I'm just feeling really guilty and angry at myself because it was totally avoidable. The coyote ran around the run freaking the chickens out until the RIR (Sugar) and the Wyandotte (Mango) flew out over the top (6 feet). I think Sugar used Mango as a decoy because I found her on top of another fence several hundred yard away. I'm so glad Sugar was okay, but if I had just covered the run, NEITHER of them would have died. My mom and I put netting over it, but now it's too late.