Surprise baby chick hatched

[Brie6895]

So this morning when I went to check on my chickens I heard a loud chirping sound. Turns out I have a baby chick! I never saw this coming so I am beyond thrilled. I need help though deciding what I need to do. Right now the little one is in the nesting box with the mom inside the coop and the other chickens including the rooster are roaming around the run.

I have two runs and two coops right beside each other. My husband built the second smaller one when one of our bantams got really sick so we separated her and built her her own separate coop and run. If this makes sense the runs are joined by chicken wire as in the middle of both of the runs share the same chicken wire wall. So that if I had another chicken in the other run they could easily been seen or even touch beaks with the other chickens.

My question is since I've never had a baby chick hatch naturally should I separate the mom and baby and put them in my extra run and coop that is empty now? Or should I just let the baby chick and mom stay with the others. I'm worried they may squash or kill the baby although at the moment since the baby is inside the coop none of the others seem to care about it. But I'm concerned if I separate them until the baby is big enough that they will fight when we reintroduce the mom and baby? Am I correct? Or since they will always be able to see each other they won't mind once I take the center wall of chicken wire down?

Hope I'm not rambling I'm beyond ecstatic and happy as can be.

Should we get a other baby chick so this one is not alone or introduced to the flock as a single new chicken?

Please help! My hubby is in a rush to separate them but I'm trying to get him to hold off until I get some answers.

If this helps I have 6 hens and 1 rooster

 

[bobbi-j]

Lots of experienced chicken-keepers keep the mama and baby in with the flock from the beginning. This is good for several reasons. The mother hen will be VERY protective of her baby. The other chickens won't be able to get close enough to squish the baby, so no worries there. The rooster will most likely come between the mama and baby to keep them from being bothered by the rest of the flock. I've seen my rooster come between the hen and chicks and my bossy hen. If you leave the mother and chick together and with the flock, you should not have to get another chick, as this one will integrate just fine with mama's help. I usually wait a week or so, because my chickens free range and I have a barn cat that prowls around my chicken area. This year I'm glad I got my first broody and babies together with the flock when I did because shortly after that a raccoon killed the mama, leaving 5 orphans. They were already integrated and knew their place in the flock. No problems there. The "look but don't touch" method of integration works to a point, but there will still be scuffles to reestablish pecking order when they're all in the same place. All that to say, if it were my hen and chick, I'd leave them with the flock. Watch to make sure there aren't any problems the first day or so, and they should be good to go.

 

[gimmie birdies]

 

[Brie6895]

Lots of experienced chicken-keepers keep the mama and baby in with the flock from the beginning. This is good for several reasons. The mother hen will be VERY protective of her baby. The other chickens won't be able to get close enough to squish the baby, so no worries there. The rooster will most likely come between the mama and baby to keep them from being bothered by the rest of the flock. I've seen my rooster come between the hen and chicks and my bossy hen. If you leave the mother and chick together and with the flock, you should not have to get another chick, as this one will integrate just fine with mama's help. I usually wait a week or so, because my chickens free range and I have a barn cat that prowls around my chicken area. This year I'm glad I got my first broody and babies together with the flock when I did because shortly after that a raccoon killed the mama, leaving 5 orphans. They were already integrated and knew their place in the flock. No problems there. The "look but don't touch" method of integration works to a point, but there will still be scuffles to reestablish pecking order when they're all in the same place. All that to say, if it were my hen and chick, I'd leave them with the flock. Watch to make sure there aren't any problems the first day or so, and they should be good to go. 

Thank you soo much for the reply. By the time I got home from work yesterday my hubby had already separated them. I couldn't tell him to move them back after he has spent the morning basically getting it nice clean and ready for them and bought them new bedding, food, water dish ect. I think he's just as excited as I am (;
I did noticed before I posted this post that one of my silkies were trying to guard the baby chick. And to me it looked as though they were fighting over who was the momma. The Cochin who I'm almost positive is the real mom was pulling at my Silkie pretty roughly.

Do you think if I just opened up the middle of the run so that there was a hole connecting the two that that might make it more peaceful when I do introduce them?