Only one chick hatched. Now what to do?

[Engteacher]

We had a disastrous hatch and only one chick made it out alive.

I can get a few day-old chicks next Monday. By then, our little guy will be 9 days old. Does it make sense to go get some little friends for our chicky, or should we let him/her be an "only?"

What do you think?

.

 

[Papadavid]

They are flock birds. I would get 2 or 3 more. Good luck.

 

[Duramaxgirl]

I'm sorry you had a bad hatch. What breed is it? I've put day olds in together with 3 week olds and they got along fine. Although it was blue laced red wyandottes and they are soooo easy going.

 

[BerrytangleFarm]

We got an only. It was very lonely. If you have the opportunity to get another chick, I'd do it. Ours is 4 weeks old now, and we're finally getting a companion for it (well, if we can't find HIM a new home -- 'cause we just discovered SHE is a HE and we don't want a HE).

 

[ChickyLaura]

I had this happen to me last year. I put a little stuffed animal duck with it, and it was fine for a few days until I got a few chicks from a lady here on BYC.

 

[Engteacher]

I put a cuddle cap in for him to nestle in, and my son is spending every free moment doting on him for the time being. He's a black java. What's funny is that we had one spot left in the incubator, so I put it in. The rest of the hatch were welsummers. We had nine heading in to lockdown, and he hatched early. I think there was a humidity issue, because the only other one that pipped had fully absorbed the yolk and the quit. We never opened the lid. Not even once. The eggs were quite porous, we noticed. Would that matter?

It will be a surprise to see what we get. The hatchery is 75 miles away, and he usually sells out of each hatch, but he thought he might have some rhode island reds. Sure, I told home. Any LF, non-flighty birds will get along fine in our coop.