Sara, what do you want to happen? Do you really want to keep it or just find a way for it to be taken care of? How well are you set up to take care of it?
I don’t know where you live but are there laws or regulations that prevent you from having chickens? Many urban/suburban areas have rules against “livestock” or may have specific regulations on how you need to manage them. That might be that you need a certain size lot to keep chickens, where to place the coop/run, how big the coop/run needs to be, how to store feed to prevent a mouse problem, rules against males, who knows what the rules might be.
What kind of chicken is it, what does it look like? Is it male or female? How old is it? Sex or age are not always easy to tell even with someone with experience, maybe posting a photo of the head showing comb and wattles and another photo of the overall posture, legs, and tail might help. One of my concerns is that it may be a male, a rooster whose crowing will disturb your neighbors. Another big concern, and this happens more than people might think, is that it might be a Cornish Cross, a chicken raised for meat that escaped while it was being transported to slaughter. Those are going to be solid white. Those chickens are not bred to be kept, they will grow so fast that they will probably have a heart attack or their skeleton breaks down at a pretty young age. Sex and what type of chicken should be huge factors in deciding what to do.
Chickens are social animals, they do a lot better if they have other chickens around. Some people keep single chickens but the chickens themselves are generally a lot happier if they have other chickens around.
Keeping an animal is a commitment. You have to feed and water it and provide shelter. You can’t just ignore it for several days. Having one can restrict your daily activities. You may have trouble spending a few days on a vacation trip unless you can find someone to take care of it while you are gone. Like other animals, chickens poop. You have to manage that poop. I don’t know how much keeping a chicken will alter your lifestyle, maybe not much if you have other pets, but it’s something to consider.
If you want to keep the chicken tell us where you live so we have an idea about climate and tell us about where you would keep it. Things like the size of your back yard and what outbuildings you have to work with, what other animals you might have. Something to give us an idea of your situation. We’ll probably suggest that you get a couple more chickens to keep it company. And certainly photos of the chicken so we can guess sex and type.
If you are willing to go through all this now and for years to come, fine, more power to you. But for the welfare of that chicken it is quite possible the best move is to contact animal control and let them take care of it.
