Need help with very depressed chicken

[Georgetownchick]

I have a flock of 9 chickens. Two are roosters. 8 of them are almost 6 months old. I had a third rooster that I traded for a hen from a friend. This hen is about a year old. She is a barred rock. I have a couple of other barred rocks as well as some RIR and a couple of black sex links. The first couple of days the new hen seemed ok. She layed both days. The past few days I think she has stopped laying and she seems very depressed. She is always by herself. The other 8 are always together and run around the yard together and sleep together. This poor girls sleeps by herself in the coop and doesn't seem to have any friends. What do I do? Should I get another hen from somewhere else that maybe could be her friend? Do I send her back to her original home? I hate that she seems so sad.

 

[Judy]

This is normal adjustment. In time she may become more integrated, or one or two of the others may pair off with her. Maybe you could try offering a treat on the ground, so that the others have to move towards her to get their share.

I have one hen who has always kept to herself to some extent. She used to sleep separately but after several months she moved onto the roost with the others -- after I made her usual sleeping spot inaccessible. She hangs around with the flock but on the outskirts. She was a lone survivor of a broody hatch.

It might be that getting another hen from her former flock would help, but I wouldn't wait too long to try this, as they don't seem to have long memories.

Good luck!