Lone Chick: Need advice!!!

[NeeleysAVLChicks]

Hi guys, so I was out of town this weekend, husband watching the chickens, and had one of those very unfortunate, stuff (though I would like to use another word...

) happens kind of accident, leading to the death of one of my two 4-wk-old Welsummer chicks.

These two girls had been the brooder by themselves. We have 8 9-wk-old chicks in the coop and I was waiting until the Welsummer girls got a little bit bigger and finished their month long quarantine before I integrated them in with the other girls. Now though, my lone chick is very obviously distraught, pacing in front of the mirror in her brooder and making a lot of noise, obviously lonely. I contacted the folks I got them from originally and they don't have any more of the same batch.

Here's my question, should I break the quarantine (I've had them for about 2 1/2 wks, noticed no problems, signs of illness, respiratory issues, nothing) and set up a sectioned off area of the coop w/ light for her so she can at least have some visual interaction with the other girls? Or should I still wait and leave her in quarantine for another week or so to be safe? Thoughts?

I'm also worried about her integration with the other girls, her now being the only one, I'm worried she'll be singled out and picked on. Any advice?

THANKS!!!

 

[cobrien]

Tough one, I don't know what I'd do if I were you, except ask on BYC. I would not break the quarantine though, I've learned the hard way...bump!

 

[77horses]

We've raised a couple "only-child" baby chicks before. While they were in their brooder box, we put a little mirror in for company. That helped a little. And when we finally introduced them to the flock, it was a little rough at first because not many of the chickens in the flock would except the newcomer. For example, our baby chick, Oreo, was raised alone in her own brooder box. When she was finally old enough to join the flock, all of the chickens (except for one, who was one of the lower birds in the flock and happend to be Oreo's mother) picked on her and wouldn't let her free range, eat, or roost with them. She didn't care about being near them, either. She often was either with her mother, Raven, the only chicken who didn't pick on her, or she was off on her own. After a while she adjusted and now they all get along and she's close to being the lower in the flock but she rarely gets picked on and she follow the flock everywhere now.

It just takes some time and patience for them to adjust from being alone and then being in a flock of other chickens. Think about it...They've lived some or all of their lives alone, except for you and anyone else who cared for them. There was no pecking order, no one to share food or water with, no one to roost with, no rooster to follow, etc...They had no one to put them in their place and they had their brooder box to themselves. Then you move them to a flock; they need to adjust to sharing food, water, space, and they need to adjust to the natural pecking order in the flock. The older, bigger chickens will try and put the newcomers in their place. There will be some fighting, some pecking, some rejection, and some overall conflict in the flock between a newcomer and the rest of the flock. That's normal. It's the only way for a flock to work together. They need to work out a pecking order so everyone knows who goes where, who does what, who's in charge, etc. Once that is figured out, things should run more smoothly again.

As for your chick, I would continue the quarantine for a little longer. Spend as much time with her as possible to prevent loneliness. If you free range your flock if you're sure that there's no signs of illness with her, you could bring her outside when the rest of the flock is free ranging and let them at least see each other to see how they react. But that's you're choice if you want to do that.

Good luck and I hope it all works out!