In your experiences, can you house a hen alone (adjacent to a flock) and have her be content? I have an inuried hen who needs to be kept separate long term. She is no longer laying and I had her housed with a lone chick--who turned out to be a roo. Lately she is hiding from him so I am considering moving him in with the flock, leaving her alone. But will she be happy?
Happy...hmmm, that's a tough call. People separate birds all the time to keep the bird. If you compare culling to living alone, yeah, I guess 'happy' might apply. We had to separate a bird and she naturally wanted to free range w/ the others so would go lay down near the run next to them. It made me sad to watch, but I'm glad we didn't have to get rid of her altogether! Go for it.
You know, she really doesnt seem to want much to do with them. When free ranging, she kind of just hangs and doesnt walk around with everyone else. She hides from her one cage mate.
Sometimes I think that's just the personality of the bird. We had one like that, and did re-home it. It just didn't seem to fit in with the others. Even though these are flock birds, there's bound to be a loner once in a while that doesn't mind not being with others, and even prefers to be alone. Just my opinion!
I had a hen that used to hang out by herself. She didn't seem to mind. When I let everyone out of the coop in the mornings to go free range she would stay in the coop by herself and not come out. It was kind of her domain I guess. I no longer have her, which is unfortunate as she was a good egg layer. Not sure if something got to her or if she left as our neighbors had roosters and at the time my roosters were little babies. Kim
You could watch her behavior, and if you think she seems lonely, get her a younger (female) roommate.
I agree that it depends on the hen. I had one that never free ranged with the others. And when I only had one hen at one point she was so lonely that she came up to our sliding glass door and just stood there looking in at us. I finally felt so bad I got 2 more hens. Then 2 more.