My first hatch of the year went well and most of my buyers picked up their chicks as day-olds which was fantastic! However, after all the chicks were sold and gone there was only one left. Usually, when I know that there will be one left I ask any of my customers if they want a free extra just to make sure I don’t end up with one lonely chick but this time none of them were interested so I ended up with just one chick left.
Chicks are very social creatures and once all of its friends were gone it started to chirp. VERY loudly. You can tell a lot about what’s happening with your chicks just depending on their chirp, so always be listening to see whether or not they sound distressed. Here are 3 things I did to help make it less lonely and the results were amazing!
- First of all, put a stuffed animal in with the chick,(we used a little horse but anything works). I know it sounds a little weird but as soon as we did this the chick stopped its distressed chirping and was very curious. From then on this little chickie and its stuffed horse were inseparable. It was always snuggling up to it and standing on top of it!
- Now we probably could have just put the stuffed animal in there and the chick would have been content but we took it just another step and put a mirror in the brooder as well. The chick loved this, it could see its reflection and didn’t feel so alone!
- Lastly, if your chick is still feeling lonely you could google “chicks chirping” and put on some chick noises if needed!
While all of these are great solutions that DO work, it shouldn’t be a long-term solution. Eventually, you should buy a few more chicks so you’re lonely one can have some friends! These tricks worked well for us but we did eventually find a good home for our chick after about two weeks. The second hatch of the year is just around the corner!
– Jess
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