I'm glad you wrote this I had two light Sussex hens snowy and snow and they stayed together all of the time.
The story.
One night I forgot to shut the door too the hen house and a fox got in and killed snow.
Next morning snowy was fine and was eating with the flock, but then as she looked over totthe other hens and i think she noticed that snow was not their.
So she started to look all over the place for snow to no avail, then she saw the feathers, snows feathers, she just looked at them and then did a surprising thing, she collapsed into the ground and started making a wailing and moaning sound like she was in pain, I went over to her and picked her up she just carried on doing it.
So I took her inside and put her on the kitchen floor and fed her some food.
She stopped after awhile and ate the food I gave her, after she had finished a took her back outside and let her run around with the other girls, she was fine.
But it just shows that Chickens can and do mourn.
I was pleased to come across this article. My interest is in chicken behavior and grieving is one of the many areas that more recent research into chicken behavior is investigating.
I have absolutely no doubt that chickens have the capacity to form friendships and mourn the loss of other flock mates. There is so much anecdotal evidence from peoples observations that even if you allow for misinterpreting and anthropomorphism at their extremes there is more to chickens emotional capacity than the human species is ready to admit.
You may have read this (?) https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/...kgo.com&httpsredir=1&article=2005&context=bts
