Dottie Kinn wrote:You have an incredible writing gift!! Loved your post and even read it to hubby who enjoyed it.
To the point, no one has mentioned that your little lady may be mourning. Animals of all sorts mourn the loss of a friend and companion. I've watched my girls mourn the loss of a rooster who was a real gentleman. I, too, mourned his loss but for different reasons. He wasn't in the "jerk" category and he was part Brahma, which I wanted to introduce into my flock via hatched chicks.
It took them a couple of weeks, but they eventually got over it. The new rooster had longer to wait for their acceptance, but they did eventually accept him and his role. I see that as a part of life regardless of the species. If my hubby died, I would mourn terribly and I seriously doubt I would accept another "rooster", ever.
If she has made a new friend in the coop, let her be more with her friend. Like mentioned by many others, there are too many lung issues that can be caused by the dander to let her be in the house permanently.
My position is probably more harsh than others because my chickens are for food (eggs and meat). They are well cared for and treated with respect, just not pets. I have 2 cats and 1 dog that are pets.
I've had a couple hens who hung out near me and talked while doing chores but I still see them as chickens, and they still act like chickens around me. None of mine are as old as yours so I don't know if that makes a difference.
Just my 2 cents worth. God bless you for being so concerned about your hens!
This is one of the first things I thought of when I first started reading this whole thread. Piper, my female cinnamon
pearl cockatiel went into mourning when we lost our male pied cockatiel. She even got physically ill for a while and
was very "clingy" flying up to sit on my, or my friends shoulder and being underfoot too often. And soon she would
be pecking at my ear demanding attention. At first she was allowed to do so to be spoon fed cooked oatmeal. But
then it just became intolerable with her hopping onto the dining table to snatch food off of my plate.
She would not socialize with Sugar, the young female gray pearl cockatiel much at all (or the 2 male white parakeets).
So the 2 cockatiels were made to spend time together in a single cage multiple weeks at a time. They both adjusted
and are best pals now. The funny thing is, now Piper who is about 17 years old insists on sharing nesting duties with
Sugar. No male cockatiel to fertilize the eggs that Sugar lays, but that has not stopped them both from being broody.
And this seems to have given Piper a purpose for living and not to just give up and let herself fall apart to die alone.
I suspect that several species of birds, although different in many ways, do have some similar behavioral attributes.
Here on the homestead, the chicken flocks have calmed considerably since "Rusty" a rooster that has always been
regarded by the rest of the flocks as an interloping outcast, recently has left the scene. (Freezer camp) Nobody seems
to miss him at all.
I agree with the above quote by Dottie Kinn.
Although it it is fun to anthropomorphize our animals sometimes and give them names, our chickens here certainly
are not pets and are raised to be food. But they are still raised with the same sort of care as anyone would give to a
beloved pet. It is just the right thing to do being good stewards and treating all the animals in our care kindly.
