Rosemary - if you don't get any luck in finding him a friend one way or another, put in a teddy with him. I hatched a single black Silkie, the other chicks didn't make it out of the shell for some reason. Anyway, I have a little teddy key ring which I always keep for my first hatchling. It gets washed over and over and works for duckies as well. I took off the metal part obviously, but it works a treat and the chick snuggles up to it.
As the Silkie grew I tried a slightly larger one but she preferred the little chap. I had her living in the bathroom until it got warm enough and she got big enough to let outside and then she went into the rabbit run, which enabled her to get used to the other chooks around. Once again the teddy was washed and put away for the next chick. We got a miniture Buff Orpington which we put in with her and they became the best of friends. She is so tame because I became her mum and every time I went into the bathroom I picked her up and she was expecting that in the end. We had her in a cage for bedtime and let her run around the tiled bathroom floor during the day. I put out toilet role tubes which she played with, and brought in a painting tray with turfs in it which she loved - all that rooting around and I made sure she had some little worms in it. It was a wonderful little chooky nursery. She had a ball!
I called her poopie for obvious reasons, but as she has grown and become so beautiful, her name has changed slightly to Poupet (pronounced poopay), which means rag doll in French. With her ruffled feathers it really suits her.
It is strange to be telling you about her today actually, because she laid me her first egg today which is just dinky and perfect!
Kate
Topic: Company required for single chick - URGENT (Read 7568 times)
