Single Chicken

[mbcerri]

I have a single 9 week old (probably male) silkie. He was hatched at my work, as I work in an educational facility and we were hatching eggs for the students to experience. In this batch, Lil Pecker (my sweetie) was the only to hatch out of 7 eggs we had obtained. I have hand raised him since hatch. He is very happy, sweet, and well-mannered at this point.

My question is should I find him a couple of friends? I thought I probably needed to but a friend of the family said that he would prefer humans to other chickens at this point. So I am not too sure what to do.

What is everyone’s opinions on this? Should I find him some fellow chicken friends? If so, should I get them now or wait until we are 100% sure of his gender? (I noticed wattle growth the other day which seems a little early for a female, thus, why I am thinking male…..just a guess at this point)

Has anyone raised a single chicken that was genuinely happy alone? I am not opposed to adding a couple more chickens. Just curious on the subject.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts! Attaching a picture of my little one!

 

[Tonyroo]

Looks like a female to me based on age and size of the comb. Nothing wrong keeping a single chicken, I've done it before they just behave as pets and content for the most part. You just end up being her flock leader.

 

[fluffycrow]

I do not sex silkies. @MysteryChicken will be able to help with that. But in my opinion, yes, you should absolutely get some more birds, no matter the gender of your chick (if you're going to keep them). Birds really do best with company. It might have worked for some people, but IMO chickens are much happier with other chickens

 

[mbcerri]

Looks like a female to me based on age and size of the comb. Nothing wrong keeping a single chicken, I've done it before they just behave as pets and content for the most part. You just end up being her flock leader.

Thank you for your response!

 

[mbcerri]

I do not sex silkies. @MysteryChicken will be able to help with that. But in my opinion, yes, you should absolutely get some more birds, no matter the gender of your chick (if you're going to keep them). Birds really do best with company. It might have worked for some people, but IMO chickens are much happier with other chickens

Thank you so much for your response. I have a friend that has offered me 3 silkie hens, but I do not know much about them yet. I will probably reach out to him tomorrow. Hopefully they would accept him in their flock, because they are a set of three older hens. (Older than my chicken, not necessarily “old”). I will probably be back with more questions once I get some more information.

Thanks again!