Single member "flock"

cydthekid50

Chirping
8 Years
Mar 14, 2015
33
8
79
I live in an apartment and through lucky happenstance find myself with one D'uccle hen who is obviously an indoor chicken. I bought her as a two day old as one of three chicks, all Le Fleur D'uccles. I discovered at about 10 weeks that two of them were roosters. They would fight each other whenever I let them out of their hutch, therefore, I found another chicken person who wanted them. Singing Feather, my remaining chicken, lives most the time in a rabbit hutch sitting atop my bedroom dresser. I recently bought a 70" tall parrot cage which I am trying to figure out how to add "floors" to it so she doesn't harm herself jumping down to the floor! When I am not away at my job, I take her into the livingroom where her parrot cage is and let her sit on top of it. She is quite a character and since she is a single bird, she has bonded to me so strongly that she will shriek whenever I leave the room! Since she is so tiny, her shrieks are not loud enough to disturb my neighbors. I bought her a radio that I keep on a classical music station, and that seems to calm her when I am away. She is quite a prolific egg layer for a bantam, laying one a day for 5 or 6 days and then resting one day. Thank goodness she is not broody. I have a question for anyone willing to answer......I am considering getting more Le Fleur chicks in the spring, two or three more and I wonder if this is going to upset her once I have them all together, or will she welcome them? I know each individual is different, but generally speaking, does anyone have any experience with introducing a single chicken into a small flock? I'm just wondering if she would be happier in a larger group or kept as a single pet? Thanks in advance for any comments. this is not her pic, it just shows what her breed looks like
 
I live in an apartment and through lucky happenstance find myself with one D'uccle hen who is obviously an indoor chicken. I bought her as a two day old as one of three chicks, all Le Fleur D'uccles. I discovered at about 10 weeks that two of them were roosters. They would fight each other whenever I let them out of their hutch, therefore, I found another chicken person who wanted them. Singing Feather, my remaining chicken, lives most the time in a rabbit hutch sitting atop my bedroom dresser. I recently bought a 70" tall parrot cage which I am trying to figure out how to add "floors" to it so she doesn't harm herself jumping down to the floor! When I am not away at my job, I take her into the livingroom where her parrot cage is and let her sit on top of it. She is quite a character and since she is a single bird, she has bonded to me so strongly that she will shriek whenever I leave the room! Since she is so tiny, her shrieks are not loud enough to disturb my neighbors. I bought her a radio that I keep on a classical music station, and that seems to calm her when I am away. She is quite a prolific egg layer for a bantam, laying one a day for 5 or 6 days and then resting one day. Thank goodness she is not broody. I have a question for anyone willing to answer......I am considering getting more Le Fleur chicks in the spring, two or three more and I wonder if this is going to upset her once I have them all together, or will she welcome them? I know each individual is different, but generally speaking, does anyone have any experience with introducing a single chicken into a small flock? I'm just wondering if she would be happier in a larger group or kept as a single pet? Thanks in advance for any comments. this is not her pic, it just shows what her breed looks like
I would intro them as day olds... Leave 2 weeks worth of eggs in the place she likes to lay them in the spring. Once she has 6 or 8 or so she will want to sit on them. Once she starts to sit order your babies and then when they come in...at night while she sleeps in the dark switch one egg at a time for a day old chick. I would not give her more then 3 or so because they are inside. Just watch her very carefully and once she is ok with them all should be fine after 24 hours because you will have fooled her into thinking the eggs she sat on were hers and her babies. But while she sits on the eggs she may not be as nice to you as she was prior to sitting. That should change a few weeks after the chicks arrive when you do the switch. She should go back to the nice little hen you have now after the chicks are 2 to 4 weeks old. That has worked for me with my hens a few years back but mine were part of a flock of 11 and my hen protected those babies for about 4 weeks. The only issue I had was because I had adult hens I was worried that the adults would kill the little ones so I didn't handle the babies as much so I had to work harder to make them people oriented. I say make her think they are hers because that should give you an easy transition for them but then she may not permit you to handle the babies. But I do have one concern and that is if they are caged together while you are out, the babies will have no place to run if she decides the cages is to small for all of them so maybe you could get a wire dog crate and while you are at work put them in the crate with a heat source and put it next to her cage so she can see them and lay next to them and love them with a bar in between them so they are protected just in case. I hope I explained this ok. But I think you get the idea. Has anyone else tried something like this and if so did it go well for you? All chickens have a different personality.
 
I was just going to add that she looks like a rooster.. LOL
If you are going to get more chickens, I suggest you get a REAL COOP.... Hens will integrate with other younger hens /chicks, but you have to do it properly. There are many threads on here of how peeps successfully did so. Keeping 3 or 4 chickens inside your house will prove to be somewhat challenging. I only keep chickens as pets also. Summer ,, outdoor coop.. Winter housing inside heated garage with added light. None inside living area of home..

WISHING YOU BEST
thumbsup.gif
 
Rich that is not a picture of her hen - she just posted it to show the breed. Her hen has been laying eggs- good enough proof for me.
 
Cydthe kid - You may want to check out "people with house chickens." You could also ask what they thought about you adding more, etc. My friend has had different breeds of house chickens for over 25 years. She generally has either silkies or seramas - right now she has both (3 birds in the house.) I think the bantam breeds do best and a single bird really bonds with it's human.
 
ps my friends birds are only caged at night, so they don't get into mischief. They and the dog, sleep by the door when she leaves, and mob her when she comes back home.

They kick the dog out of his bed when they pretend they are broody, and steal food out of his dish.
 
I live in an apartment and through lucky happenstance find myself with one D'uccle hen who is obviously an indoor chicken. I bought her as a two day old as one of three chicks, all Le Fleur D'uccles. I discovered at about 10 weeks that two of them were roosters. They would fight each other whenever I let them out of their hutch, therefore, I found another chicken person who wanted them. Singing Feather, my remaining chicken, lives most the time in a rabbit hutch sitting atop my bedroom dresser. I recently bought a 70" tall parrot cage which I am trying to figure out how to add "floors" to it so she doesn't harm herself jumping down to the floor! When I am not away at my job, I take her into the livingroom where her parrot cage is and let her sit on top of it. She is quite a character and since she is a single bird, she has bonded to me so strongly that she will shriek whenever I leave the room! Since she is so tiny, her shrieks are not loud enough to disturb my neighbors. I bought her a radio that I keep on a classical music station, and that seems to calm her when I am away. She is quite a prolific egg layer for a bantam, laying one a day for 5 or 6 days and then resting one day. Thank goodness she is not broody. I have a question for anyone willing to answer......I am considering getting more Le Fleur chicks in the spring, two or three more and I wonder if this is going to upset her once I have them all together, or will she welcome them? I know each individual is different, but generally speaking, does anyone have any experience with introducing a single chicken into a small flock? I'm just wondering if she would be happier in a larger group or kept as a single pet? Thanks in advance for any comments. this is not her pic, it just shows what her breed looks like
I almost forgot, as for floors in the cage I would add shelves that are made from wire 1/2 inch x 1/2 inch and connect them in the corners this way when she poops it will fall to the bottom. You could have fun with this cage. You could put a small covered box in the very top corner so she has a private area to sit and lay her eggs. Then you could give her baby music boxes and hang them by the diff levels of the shelves so she can make use of the entire cage. You could hang treat boxes made from pvc and parrot bells, shiny things and things that she can peck at. Maybe even a mirror. I would hang stuff all over for her and make the shelves like an inside out spirel staircase of wire stepping shelves she could sit on at any level I would even put a swing in and hang jute rope and strands of cotton fabrics. (Make sure anything that has strings is kept very short stragly parts so she doesn't get caught or hung on them) but I would have so much fun. Get things that can be washed. Maybe a plastic baby rattle. Things she may find interesting. Do it a little at a time she may get scared at first but she will not be bored. After a little bit you could switch the toys out and around so she has to look for the ones she likes the best. Just show her not to be scared and then show her they either make a sound or whatever it is that she wants to do with it. When my grand daughter comes she makes pictures with colored chalk for my girls and they peck at the pics till the rain washes the walls but I never thought of hanging toys like parrots. This can be a great thing. Have fun....I will with my girls.
 

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