From what I've read and heard, it's difficult to integrate just one chicken to a group and more stressful on the chicken, especially if it's a chick. Is your limit due to coop size or to city/neighborhood restrictions? If it's self-imposed due to coop size, I would probably go with 3, since they tend to squeeze together on the roost anyway and not spend much time in the coop.
Chickens die - as chicks, from predators, disease, etc. Last year I had 17 chickens - we culled 2 due to disease, one mean cockerel, one was eaten by a neighbor dog and 2 died from a sudden medical issue - perhaps vent gleet. I bought 2 more hens in the fall and now I'm up to 13. I have had to accept that this will happen with chickens. We are out of town on acreage, but really, all of this can happen in town as well. In fact, we have been told there are no raccoons where we are, but they are all over town (brought in by garbage cans, etc). We do of course have coyote and hawks mostly, and neighborhood dogs to worry about. Thankfully, I rarely see an eagle overhead and we have no bears or large cats where we live.
What breed(s) are you going to raise? Best of Luck to you!
