Is it okay to raise 1 chick alone and then introduce to flock?

[jimmywalt]

My wife and I have 5 chickens in our backyard coop. We would love to add a silver laced Wyandotte to our group. The challenge is we probably only have room for 1 more chicken in our little flock.

Our coop is 4'x'4'x4' and one of our current 5 is a Bantam.

We are thinking about getting a chick and raising it in a brooder in our basement for about the next 8 weeks, but are wondering is it ok to raise one for that amount of time all alone???

Here's a picture of our coop & run.

 

[mithious]

Chickens are a flock, they do not do well on their own. They will peep constantly and loudly until you hold them and could develop behavior issues and not be able to integrate with your current flock. It might be possible, but mostly likely, they will have issues. Plus, do you really want to hold a chick for 8 weeks so it's happy and quiet?

Lots of other posters, OP's, have asked how to get theirs to stop that loud peeping, when circumstances left them with one chick...the best advice was to get another chick for them...just some things to think about when making your decision!

 

[ChirpyChicks1]

You can give them a mirror so they see a reflection and assume there is another chick, you can also give them a stuffed animal to snuggle with but all in all it's going to be a lonely chick and would be best to have a real live buddy. If you don't have enough room and you decide to add two more chickens they you run the chance the chickens turning on each other from being unhappy and possibly becoming sick as well because of the cramped conditions.

 

[jammyjammy2112]

i bpugth 2 3 week old chicks her sister died 2 days after i got her she got really attactched to me she would allways wont to be on my lap and go to sleep or play she had a great personallity but now she is 1 and a half years old and under no circumstances will she leave any rooster mount her she will run as far as possible she thinks its going to kill her she lays and is not as attached to me as she used to be and she usually attacks other chickens not severly just chses them and pulls there feathers sligthly

 

[cafarmgirl]

I would not raise one chick alone. Not only that, but integrating one new bird, especially with a small space, can be seriously brutal. I have integrated single new birds in the past, I will not do it again. Ever. Chickens do NOT like newcomers and when there is only one they just fixate on that one new bird. Regardless of how many new ones you get you would need to have a way to fence off part of the run or some area for the new bird so that when it's old enough it can share a fence line with the older birds for a couple weeks but not be attacked. Even with doing this for several weeks I've still had problems integrating a single new bird. The last time I attempted a lone newbie I had the new bird penned alongside for two months. Two full months. When I finally let her out to free range with them they attacked, scalped and almost killed her. It took a very long time, months, but they finally allowed her to free range near them, they never did allow her in their coop. Now I only integrate groups of 3 or more and I do not have those problems.