Single orphan chick - how to raise? :(

[TheBanditQueen]

What to do when you have a lone chick?

Had a mama hen with 2 chicks. Something broke in last night (still not sure what, strange situation) and killed hen and 1 chick.

2nd chick escaped, lucky booger, and got in my other broody pen right next door. (And yet the predator didn't...go figure) This hen's hatch is not due til the 27th. She'd be quite glad to take the chick, right now it's happily sitting on her head, but with a chick, she may leave her eggs...

My incubator isn't due to hatch for another 9 days, so right now I have no other chicks of similar age this orphan can live with.

I have a batch of 4 week old chicks, but they are MASSIVE compared to this one. And that's all I have. This one is only 10 days old...wouldn't that be too big an age difference?

But I don't know if it would survive 9 days alone in my brooder... Maybe I could put just one of the 4 week old monsters with it?

Any advice/thoughts/ideas welcome. Thanks in advance. Please be gentle...I already feel bad enough about what happened.

 

[FortCluck]

Do you have stuff animals? Do you have mirrors? Put them in the brooder with the chick, it’ll give it company.

Don’t put a 4 week old with it because it can pick on it and cause serious damage.

 

[CurlyQuail]

If you have any plushies, mirrors, anything to make the chick think it’s not alone. You can have closely supervised visits with the older chicks if these don’t help.

 

[FortCluck]

Check out this link:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/8-ways-to-grow-a-single-chick.73892/

 

[TheBanditQueen]

A mirror, I didn't think of that. I may have a hand mirror somewhere and can look for a plushie something. Good ideas in the link too. Thank you guys. ❤

 

[Chickeng1rl567]

A great way to comfort the chick is to hang a feather duster so the chick can snuggle underneath it. It feels just like being under mama’s comfy belly.

 

[TheBanditQueen]

The mirror helped, but baby isn't quite buying it. :/ Hopefully I can dig up a feather duster as well.

 

[Quacksalot12]

If your four-week old chicks are in a brooder (and if that brooder is large enough), maybe you could divide the brooder using chicken wire, etc. so that the lone chick could be on one side and still be able to see and hear the older chicks on the other side.

 

[TheBanditQueen]

Thanks Quacksalot! I tried to see if that would work, but size and shape just weren't conducive.

Little nugget did better when I put the mirror in, but still was feeling pretty low. I ended up putting one of my baby turkeys (3 weeks old) with him. No pecking, no fighting, now they are both doing well thankfully. Making peaceful happy chirps, and having a ball playing with the mirror together.