Help with bantams - poor girl now on her own

I wonder if anyone keeps bantams and can help me please.

We have had a pair of lavender bantams for around two and a half years. They were given to us by a local farmer (little country farm with animals well cared for). We have had them living in our walled garden with a little hen house to go into at night.

Very sadly the cockerel has passed away so the poor little girl is on her own. I know we must get her a friend but I was wondering if we should do this straight away or wait a little while. Also, I was going to get another female instead of a male, do you think she will adapt to this change OK?

I could also do with some advice on what breed to get. They live in our walled garden and are free to wander through the beds and Borders - whilst they do scratch about they seem to be either the right size or breed not to cause any major damage to plants etc. Would the same be true of all types of bantams or is this type just particularly good? We would love full sized hens so we could get a higher volume of eggs but know they would scratch a lot more and don't want to keep them penned in.

Does anyone have any recommendations if we should stick to the same breed or what else may suit our situation? Sorry for the long post and thank you for reading.

Laurie

I agree with Joyfull here.  Chickens are flock birds and need company

My Bantams do very little damage at all - its great.
The 4 ex batts however are very destructive, but also hilarious to watch, so they can be forgiven.. haha..

I would think your girl is just desperate to have at least one new friend, if not a few more ;-)

Phil

no problem at all with mixing breeds - I have araucanas, sabelpoots, Belgian barbu d'anvers, appenzellers, ex batts, silkie crosses, araucana crosses, black rock, plus loads more that I can't remember what breed they are lol!!