Only one chicken left in my flock. What do I do?

[BDutch]

Sorry you lost 2 of your chickens.

I would try to find one hen to keep her compony for the time being*. Preferably about the same size and friendliness.
You don’t need to separate the hens for long if you are sure you bought a healthy hen. Integration of two single hens should be easy if you have 2 feed stations and enough space.

That said. Do make a safe run for at least 2 hens asap. Don’t put them in a small coop without outdoor space where the can go from morning till sunset.

After this you can start to think about a future flock. Do you ever want to free range again? How many chickens do you want in the future? Did you ever consider to add a rooster? Let a broody hen hatch chicks?

*If it takes some time to find a ‘roommate’, keep her company yourself as much as you can. Maybe bring her in (a part of) the house for a while, daily. Where you can easily clean the floor.
Other pets might help too if they can be trusted with your hen.

 

[Joeski510]

Sorry you lost 2 of your chickens.

I would try to find one hen to keep her compony for the time being*. Preferably about the same size and friendliness.
You don’t need to separate the hens for long if you are sure you bought a healthy hen. Integration of two single hens should be easy if you have 2 feed stations and enough space.

That said. Do make a safe run for at least 2 hens asap. Don’t put them in a small coop without outdoor space where the can go from morning till sunset.

After this you can start to think about a future flock. Do you ever want to free range again? How many chickens do you want in the future? Did you ever consider to add a rooster? Let a broody hen hatch chicks?

*If it takes some time to find a ‘roommate’, keep her company yourself as much as you can. Maybe bring her in (a part of) the house for a while, daily. Where you can easily clean the floor.
Other pets might help too if they can be trusted with your hen.

Thanks to all for the responses. We used to have four chickens but one was a rooster so we had to give him away. I will try to spend as much time with her while we make a decision on what to do her.

Thanks again to all for the kind words and advice.

 

[Mrs. K]

Contact your local county extension office asking for 4-H clubs or poultry clubs. Consider posting at the feed store.

Integrating chickens tends to be very hard, when you are adding less to more, young to old. As in adding 2 pre laying pullets to an established flock of eight 4year old hens. That would be rough.

But adding one bird to one bird, if they are both laying, should be a pretty easy add.

Mrs K

 

[Debby R]

I recently lost two of my three chicken flock to a predator. Now I only have one hen left. She's about 9 months old and I'm wondering if I should give her away, buy a new chicken or two to keep her company or wait till spring to get some new chicks? I'm worried about her getting lonely and depressed since she has always had "sisters" around to keep her company. Can a chicken pass away from being lonely? I now have to keep her cooped up all day and night because there's a predator problem and I don't have a chicken run as they always free ranged in the backyard. It's January so I would have to wait three months until spring to get new chicks. Will she be ok till then? Should I find a new home? Should I get new chickens to keep her company? Or is there a solution I'm not exploring. Thanks in advance for your time and advice.

I lost 3 hens in November, 8 & 9 year olds. My last 8 year old would not leave the coop for 3 days. She was afraid of the mirror I got her. A couple weeks later I brought home 2 chicks and by that time, she had begun to look better on her own. I spent more time with her and she began to thrive. The chicks have been living in the coop (separate space) for a couple of weeks and now are running free with access to a safe area. My hen started laying again after a two year hiatus, pecking at the mirror, and looks so healthy. The chicks are doing great and up on her roost now. If weather restricts you from bringing in chicks, I would get another hen. They will probably tussle at first but I think your hen will do better in the long run. Are you working on building a run? Chickens are flock animals, always better with others. I don’t know if yours would die from being alone but she may not do well.

 

[JenniMcChick]

I did the mirror with a duckling. It did fine and spent time looking in the mirror.
Chickens are flock birds, so getting more birds would be ideal, but chicken can live on their own. A few members have had chickens that choose not to hang with the flock. Others have had situations where one bird survived and lived a content life on its own.

I had a friend who over the course of 2-3 years lost some of her chickens to one thing or another. In the end, she had a lone Black Australorp. She didn't want to get any more as she just got so upset when one of them passed, so she asked if I would take her sole chicken in because she was afraid she was lonely & depressed. But at the time I was treating mine & their coop for suspected mites. When I reached out to let her know we were ready, she said she thought her chicken was now doing ok without the others so she'd go ahead & hang on to her for a little bit longer just to make sure. And she was! That was over 2.5 years ago. I was there last week & the chicken is still living a very happy chicken life. She has the run of the fenced in yard and hangs out with the dogs all day. At night, she goes into the tiny coop and one of the dogs lays outside the coop waiting for her to come out in the morning. And then off they go to do whatever it is they do all day. It's actually adorable. So while it obviously won't turn out that way in every situation, it IS possible. Guess they just need a friend, feathers not necessarily required.
"Nature will find a way".

 

[Joeski510]

I lost 3 hens in November, 8 & 9 year olds. My last 8 year old would not leave the coop for 3 days. She was afraid of the mirror I got her. A couple weeks later I brought home 2 chicks and by that time, she had begun to look better on her own. I spent more time with her and she began to thrive. The chicks have been living in the coop (separate space) for a couple of weeks and now are running free with access to a safe area. My hen started laying again after a two year hiatus, pecking at the mirror, and looks so healthy. The chicks are doing great and up on her roost now. If weather restricts you from bringing in chicks, I would get another hen. They will probably tussle at first but I think your hen will do better in the long run. Are you working on building a run? Chickens are flock animals, always better with others. I don’t know if yours would die from being alone but she may not do well.

Thanks for the advice. I got a 3 month of pullet (buff orpington) and introduced the two after a day living in the same coop but separated. Today my 9 month old traumatized hen was spotted up and walking around the secured underside of the coop. So she looks to be getting better. She did stop laying eggs though. I will build some sort of run so they can get fresh air and do some foraging.

 

[birdlady11]

I think the most important question yet to be asked (hope I didn't miss it. Sorry if I did) is - have you fixed your coop/run so that predators can't reach your chickens. Getting a buddy for your single hen won't do a lot of good if the predator is still able to get at the chickens.

I had two sister chickens, Pam and Sue, who were the oldest of my flock of 11 at 17-years-old. Despite the fact they'd been the Queens of the Chickens in their younger days and ruled the roost with no tolerance for backtalk, they chose not to hang out with the rest of the flock in their golden years. They were absolutely inseparable. They had their old-lady issues and spent their days lazing around the yard, dust bathing in the same hole, and sleeping in the sun right next to each other.

When Sue passed away Pam was despondent, not eating, wandering the property all day yelling for her sister, not eating, and coming back to the coop to sleep at the last minute completely exhausted. She got weaker and weaker to the point that I tube fed her while I searched for a new buddy for her. I knew it had to be a very young chicken that she could easily intimidate because she was too old and weak to stand up to an adult hen while they got to know each other.

I borrowed a young hen about 4 months old from a friend of mine and put them together in her section of the coop (20'x4') until they accepted each other. It turns out this young girl was an a real nut job. She spooked at everything and RAN everywhere she went. We took to calling her RoadRunner. Pam, on the other hand, ambled slowly everywhere she went and nothing ruffled her feathers.

Pam continued to mourn the loss of her sister, still calling for her, but slowly started to eat again. It took them about a month before RoadRunner wanted to sleep next to Pam on the perch and Pam allowed it. Once they became friends in the coop I let them loose together. Over time they became best buds. The turn personalities began to complement each other - RoadRunner calmed down considerably and took her cues from Pam on when to worry about something. Pam began to take pleasure in walking all over the property with RoadRunner which helped keep her healthier in her old age. When RoadRunner started laying eggs, Pam rallied and managed to pop out four or five eggs each spring. It was amazing.
The addition of young RoadRunner added two years to Pam's life and she finally passed away at 19. Luckily, my friend was happy to take RoadRunner back, putting her back in the flock with her mother and siblings, and she did very well back home.

The moral of my story is that I believe chickens can die of a broken heart (mine most certainly would have without my intervention of tube feedings and a new chicken further down the pecking order) and you can introduce a new buddy if you choose carefully and give them time and space to get to know one another.

Sorry it took so long to get to the point but I enjoyed telling Pam's story.

 

[achiekitty]

I recently lost two of my three chicken flock to a predator. Now I only have one hen left. She's about 9 months old and I'm wondering if I should give her away, buy a new chicken or two to keep her company or wait till spring to get some new chicks? I'm worried about her getting lonely and depressed since she has always had "sisters" around to keep her company. Can a chicken pass away from being lonely? I now have to keep her cooped up all day and night because there's a predator problem and I don't have a chicken run as they always free ranged in the backyard. It's January so I would have to wait three months until spring to get new chicks. Will she be ok till then? Should I find a new home? Should I get new chickens to keep her company? Or is there a solution I'm not exploring. Thanks in advance for your time and advice.

I’m so sorry for your loss.

My short answer is, if you can’t give her a companion sooner, she maybe be better off in another flock and you can start over in the spring.

The question is: How attached are you to this chicken?

We had a similar issue a few years ago, except our surviving chicken was 7 years old at the time and she’s been re-homed a couple of times. She came to us when she was about 4.

Goldie did not want to leave the coop into the run to eat. We let her into the house to keep her company, with a barrier so she couldn’t roam around. We eventually (not sure how long it took) got her a grown hen for companion, Maggie May, from my friend down the street, and she lived until she was 10.

Hope this helps with your decision making.

 

[achiekitty]

Thanks for the advice. I got a 3 month of pullet (buff orpington) and introduced the two after a day living in the same coop but separated. Today my 9 month old traumatized hen was spotted up and walking around the secured underside of the coop. So she looks to be getting better. She did stop laying eggs though. I will build some sort of run so they can get fresh air and do some foraging.

I didn’t see your response when I wrote mine. So glad you got her a companion.