URGENT. Surprise baby chick!

[Wbstofer]

Hello, first post on forum. I have been a lurker reading things on the site for a while. Soo...tonite I go to get the eggs and I hear a chirp chirp coming from a nesting box. Seems I must have missed an egg for 20 days or so! Mixed flock but I believe a barred rock mother, seems to be mothering well. 12 chickens plus rooster that should have been a hen! Anyway, 20-30 degrees outside in winter in Indiana, what should I do? Raise one chick indoors? Will other chickens attack? Rooster? Thoughts from the group please?

 

[Shayna]

How cute! Is it possible she has other eggs and this is just the first to hatch?
The hen may be able to protect her baby from the others in the flock, but often people section them off within view of the others to protect them. If your coop is unheated and separating isn't possible, it might be best to raise the baby alone. If you can get another chick or two locally from someone, that would be nice, otherwise feather dusters work as a surrogate mom for a baby.
Good luck!

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

I think I'd leave the chick with mom. If you have a wire dog kennel to put the two in and hang a heat lamp that should work well till the chick feathers out.

 

[Patricia Jane]

If you can I would section that area off and let mom do her thing. I had one raise 4 babies in the coop with it sectioned off for a while then I took down the partition and out she went with the babies. They were just fine. However I did have a brooder setup just in case.

 

[Wbstofer]

Thanks everyone for the help. I didn't see any more eggs, but apparently I didn't see this one for a long time. I think I will try to put them both in a different section of the pen with a heat lamp and see what happens. Maybe I need to invest in an incubator!

-Bill