Chickens definitely have emotions, though they seem to be relatively simple, they're a lot more complex and intelligent than I thought they would be.
In our small flock of six, each chicken is really aware of where the others are. When one gets separated she'll run around the yard peeping forlornly. If she's really lost she'll come to the back door, basically "asking" us to help. After our first loss of four out of 5 at the time, our lone chicken survivor, Edna seemed very depressed. Didn't scratch, drink or feed. Just sat like a lump in the brooder. We bought 4 more chicks and she seemed to perk up. When we discovered one was a rooster, and causing trouble in the flock (making the girls bleed at barely 5 weeks) we got rid of him. But the remaining girls did react to his loss, they wandered around the yard, clearly looking for him, calling. I felt really terrible and held Edna, she tried to snuggle into my hair like a young chick does to the mother hen's feathers.
But by the next day they'd basically forgotten about him and the amount of violence in the flock dropped by probably 100%, so in the end I felt like it was the right decision. I'd imagine if they were more closely bonded it probably would have taken longer for them to recover.
I think in larger flocks, chickens simply can't bond as closely so you might not see that kind of behavior.
In our small flock of six, each chicken is really aware of where the others are. When one gets separated she'll run around the yard peeping forlornly. If she's really lost she'll come to the back door, basically "asking" us to help. After our first loss of four out of 5 at the time, our lone chicken survivor, Edna seemed very depressed. Didn't scratch, drink or feed. Just sat like a lump in the brooder. We bought 4 more chicks and she seemed to perk up. When we discovered one was a rooster, and causing trouble in the flock (making the girls bleed at barely 5 weeks) we got rid of him. But the remaining girls did react to his loss, they wandered around the yard, clearly looking for him, calling. I felt really terrible and held Edna, she tried to snuggle into my hair like a young chick does to the mother hen's feathers.
But by the next day they'd basically forgotten about him and the amount of violence in the flock dropped by probably 100%, so in the end I felt like it was the right decision. I'd imagine if they were more closely bonded it probably would have taken longer for them to recover.
I think in larger flocks, chickens simply can't bond as closely so you might not see that kind of behavior.