I was putting my girls up last night [& we all know what a circus that is

] when my neighbour called me over, worried about her Langshan. By the time I got there, there was nothing anyone could do. She was fine just moments before, strutting round their yard as usual with her Cochin buddy, then laid an egg & collapsed. I gave my neighbour some Amprolium, just in case, for her other hen but she promptly offered me the Cochin. I was rather flabbergasted. I know her partner doesn't like the chickens but they actually belong to her daughters & I was too stunned to explain adding a single chicken into an exsisting flock is never a good idea. I feel so sorry for the cochin. She is penned today & looks so sad & loney & my girls are all round the other side of the house sheltering from the wind. Cochins have never been on my want list & my neighbour says her girls haven't laid in 6 months! They are only young hens so should still be laying fairly regularly.