How long can a chicken live alone?

First off, I'm not entirely sure under which thread to put this, but hopefully this is the right one?

My rooster, Louise, has been alone nearly two weeks now because my last remaining rooster, Thelma, died of a heart attack, presumably.

We have eggs in the incubator due to hatch in a couple weeks (candling tonight!) but even so, it will be a long time before they even see Louise. We can't keep Louise because of his crowing, and we had arrangements for someone to come get him today, but he has continuously rescheduled. I'm just worried for Louise's mental health. He can't even go outside because of his crowing. I leave the door open for him and he goes right up to the door (refuses to go down steps though; he's always been different, since a chick) and he lies down in the sun, takes dust baths in the sand in the coop. I just feel so bad for him.

Where did you get eggs from if you had two roosters?

Chickens need friends. Presumably a rooster can fair longer alone than a hen but still - the sooner the better.

Before you introduce the chicks, wait till they're mobile - at least 3 days. and give plenty of space and hiding places.

A lone chicken will usually accept friends of any age after a time.

Chicken = gallus gallus domesticus. That's the species.
Rooster = male chicken over 1 year of age.
Hen = female chicken over 1 year of age.
Cockerel = male chicken under 1 year of age.
Pullet = female chicken under 1 year of age.

ChickenCanoe said:

Where did you get eggs from if you had two roosters?

Chickens need friends. Presumably a rooster can fair longer alone than a hen but still - the sooner the better.

Before you introduce the chicks, wait till they're mobile - at least 3 days. and give plenty of space and hiding places.

A lone chicken will usually accept friends of any age after a time.

Chicken = gallus gallus domesticus. That's the species.
Rooster = male chicken over 1 year of age.
Hen = female chicken over 1 year of age.
Cockerel = male chicken under 1 year of age.
Pullet = female chicken under 1 year of age.

Click to expand...

It's a long story. We bought our eggs from a breeder that we found off Poultry Talk Ontario. Our first batch, (20 eggs) ended up in the mailbox and not the post office and most of the eggs broke, so we got only 3 chicks. 2 hens, one rooster. Then, we ordered another batch of twenty (made sure she wrote live hatching eggs and padded them up more) so we got nine chicks, genders unknown. Then, this summer, because we had been in the habit of letting them all free range, we left one day and, without thinking, left them outside. Of course, something got ten of them, so we were left with two chicks. (We will NEVER leave them alone like that again.) We thought they were hen for the longest time and then realized that they were not. One of them severely hurt his leg and we were unable to save him. So now we have one rooster (or, cockerel, I guess, he's under a year.)
This time, we ordered eggs from another breeder and he was super good about padding them; ordered 30 eggs, ended up with 35.

Should we introduce them that early? I thought they had to stay inside until it was warmer (here in Canada, March and April are cold.) I suppose if he still isn't gone, we kind of have to. We should have arranged something sooner for him, but we thought he was a hen for the longest time, and then Thelma hurt his leg, so we couldn't sell him. :/

*Sigh* At least we're learning.