New chick with lone older chick

[Mblak]

Hoping for some advice from more experienced chicken owners.
I had two americuanas for a little over a year in my suburban backyard coop before a fox ripped off the door one night. Planned to reinforce the coop with stronger hardware and got two new chicks from a farm store that didn't have the best reviews for chicks, but we were eager to get new birds and the Murdochs near me doesn't have chicks year round. Anyway, I got one americauana and one barred rock this time. Long story short, the barred rock never grew right and died today, so now I have a single 3 month old chicken. I can only have two chickens at a time, per my county regs. I guess my concerns are 1) I know I can't really have a solitary chicken, so how/when to introduce a new chick to my old chick and 2) should I put my lonely girl outside alone? Coop repairs took longer than expected so chicks were still in the brooder, plus my barred rock had feather issues and still needed the heat lamp until the end. I guess I'm worried it will scar her to spend her first nights outside as a teen chick alone. (I'm in a very suburban neighborhood with close neighbors who would not appreciate a screeching chicken). On the other hand, it's time to get this girl out of my house. Thoughts and advice gladly accepted.

 

[azygous]

Unless you can buy another three-month old chicken, a new baby chick will be extremely over-matched by a nearly full grown chicken. While new baby chicks up to four weeks old don't have awareness of a pecking order and are very likely to accept a new strange chick among them, an older chicken will be very intent on demonstrating its rank to any new comer, no matter how small.

A gradual introduction with see through barriers would be the best way to approach this. While it would short-cut the integration of the two to be introduced right away, you want to take care you don't expose the baby to the other chicken while it's still small and vulnerable.

I would set up side-by side quarters for the two, brooding the new chick alone side by side with the older one. For brooding a single chick, I like the heating pad system since it provides comfort and security in addition to heat. As the two become acquainted through a barrier, you can begin allowing the two to mingle for short periods by opening a couple of entrances to the baby's brooder that only the small chick can fit through. This way the baby has the safe have to scoot back to should the going get rough.

 

[JMotuzick]

Any way you can find another pullet about the same age? Around here there are a few people who raise chicks and sell them 10-20 weeks old. Last year I bought 6 to get started from a couple young 4-h ladies. Mom was helping but they did all the work! I think they where $10 each.