I hatched 2 barnyard mixes in March. They ended up being a cockerel and a pullet and they are extremely attached to one another. If one is separated from the other, you won't hear the end of it until they're reunited (as far as I can tell now as I've never intentionally separated them longer than they needed to be). Last Sunday, the female was attacked by a dog and while she didn't sustain any injuries, she was pretty shook up afterwards and went up to roost early. Her brother nestled in right next to her despite the amount of daylight that was left and didn't leave her side for the rest of the night.
I feel that if I weren't able to keep him that there would be emotional stress on both of them being separated. I also feel that, just like humans, they would eventually get used to their new situation. Like when I was 10 and my family moved and I thought that was the end of my life because I was leaving all my friends and everything I had ever known for a decade. Clearly, life went on while I was working out how to fit into my new surroundings and I didn't actually die.
I started with chickens last October when a rooster showed up on my grandparents' front porch and no one claimed him. It took him awhile to get used to me, and just when he did I introduced 4 pullets that were from a flock with a different rooster. It might have been the cold of our winter last year, but they took to each other fairly quickly. Not being an animal behaviourist, I can't say for sure if they just forget their previous flock mates or not once new ones are introduced, but they do seem to follow Walt Disney's advice of "keep moving forward" from my limited observations/anecdotes.
Anyway, scientists are now finding out that trees communicate with each other so who can say with 100% certainty that animals don't have emotional range?
