New chick - needs some help

Hi! I read a lot on here about everyone's chicken stories, and I love them and have learned a ton! But I now am in some need of help. We have 28 chickens, all free range, for about 4 years. They are all doing great, and they are a general mix. We have never hatched our own chickens before, but with this last batch we received 3 roosters, so we knew that would increase our chances of little babies. We have one hen, Dovey, that actually sat on a nest of 7 eggs, we left her because she is such a mother hen, no pun intended . Once one egg hatched, she sort of moved to the side of the nesting box, not sitting directly on the other 6 eggs, I figured that it was due to her fussing over the new chick. But two days later, an egg that she was half sitting on hatched. Dovey (the hen) completely had no interest, we kept peeking in, not disturbing her thinking she was annoyed with us. But she took her new 2 day old chick and moved to another nesting box. We finally intervened about 2 hours after the new chick hatched, my daughter brought her inside very upset because she was very cold and still wet. So I got a heating pad, a boot box (I knew buying new boots was needed hehe), and a warm fuzzy towel, and got the chick settled. Next thing I did was get on here, I found someone who said for a sick chick mix some plain yogurt and water, then dropper feed until the chick is able to drink eat on its own. Which I did. Once the chick got better we tried to introduce the chick back to Dovey and the other little baby. But Dovey wants nothing to do with the new chick. Now, I am working (I work from home) with a chick perched on my shoulder, or buried in my hoodie (which I now notice I wear just to make her (hopefully) happy). She is now 6 days old, spoiled rotten, and doesn't want anything to do with outside. I just don't know what to do. She sleeps in a kennel with a heating pad at night, but screams for about 25 minutes before she actually goes to sleep. I just have no idea what I am doing, we have a ton of animals horses, goats, dogs, chickens, cats. And we have taken in all kinds of animals in need. But I am not sure about a chick, I feed her chick starter, and bread, clean water all the time.

Am I ruining her for outside?
Will she ever be able to go outside?
Does she need more than a heating pad?
Is she ok by herself? (no other chicks or chickens)

Like a new mom, i'm sure I am messing up somewhere, but any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!!!!


Thank you!!

Morgan
Here are some pictures of our newest memeber of the family, and one with how she travels with us.

If you don't have the option of getting her a little chickie play mate, I think, if I were in your shoes (or boots), I'd take Dovey's other chick away, and bring it in, and rear the 2 hatch mates together.

Love the pic's - how adorable. Sounds like you're doing a mighty fine job under the circumstances of being a surrogate mom.

I wouldn't feed bread. Just make sure there's access to the chick feed and plenty of clean water at all times. Make sure he/she stays warm but not too hot (probably why your hoodie is a happy spot). Your keeping him/her warm like a mother hen would. Probably put the heating pad on half of the box so the chick can get on and off at will thereby regulating body heat on her/his own. Rearing in the box is fine until a complete set of feathers have developed. Then you can introduce the big beautiful outside world. If the outside temperatures are warm enough a few minutes a day of supervised playtime may be helpful.

Sounds like you have a new "pet" chicken .