A Dog attacked one of two newish chickens and it died, how do I ensure the other one...

[DelayedActionMouseMaker]

Now integrates better with the rest of the flock.
It wasn't our dog, it belonged to a visitor. The 2 new birds only came here 2 weeks ago and kept themselves pretty much totally separate to the 6 established birds we had in our flock. I'm worried that now the other one is alone it will be attacked by the others or be a loner.
I actually can't find it at the moment either, the dog went for both of them.
Am pretty shaken up at the mo so sorry if not very coherent...

Hi,

Sorry to hear about the dog attack...

Our experience with chooks (10+ years) is that there is no way of avoiding the process of establishing the pecking order when introducing a new bird - you have to let them get on with it. That usually means standing back while you see the new birds receiving a hard time at the hands of the dominant ones. Separating etc, only delays the inevitable. The pecking can be vicious, and it's not nice to watch, but that's the nature of chickens. One day the new one might be dishing out the same treatment to others. I don't think the fact that one half of the pair has gone, will make things better or worse for the surviving hen.

On some occasions we've found that newly introduced birds have refused to go to bed in the coup with the rest of the flock (presumably because they either don't feel "at home" or know they're going to receive a bit of a pasting). In these cases we've resorted to going out after bed time, and manually putting the new ones in the coup. It can take a few nights / couple of weeks for them to get the idea, but in the end they always start going in with the rest.

It won't necessarily be nice to watch, but just let them get on with it. It'll be ok.

Nigel

They both used to go happily into bed with the others, so I'm hoping this will continue, I guess I feel for it having lost its only friend. (Wuss)