Northern Breeders, please help

I am completely out of my element up here and need some guidance.

I have been in Oklahoma and the method there is to breed early in the winter to get them grown before the ridiculous heat waves that halt growth. Up here, the winter wasn't as harsh as it could have been, but I was constantly worried that the electricity would fail and I would wind up with about a hundred dead chicks downstairs.

What do you do?

Do you start hatching early in the fall (now?) and get them past the need to have heat supplied before the extreme winter hits? Or do you hatch in the spring (mid-April) through summer?

If you have a larger breed, that is more what I am after. The bantams seem to thrive no matter what I do to them.

Thank you all for your help, I really appreciate any advice or insight you can give with these issues. I would like to get a really good start on my next year's hatch and think I may need to go ahead and start hatching. Some will have to wait as my splash male is not nearly old enough to breed.

Most everyone I know up here (northern Minnesota) get their newly-hatched in April or early May so they will be mature enough to deal with the very cold winters. We are more concerned up here about winter cold than summer heat. For us the low 90's was considered very hot this summer.

A good thread was started whether to heat or not to heat the coop in the extreme cold. But I think they are talking about chickens who have had the spring and summer to fatten up and feather out. It is just 6 pages. Worth the read. It will be my first winter with my own birds.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/700016/heat-lamp-or-no-heat-lamp-for-cold-weather/50#post_9514596

If it was me, I would wait til spring and start them off in the house.

Where are you located?

I am in Pennsylvania now. I believe the northern midwest might be a bit more extreme than central PA, but again, I'm not familiar with this area so I cannot speak from experience.

Thank you for your response!

Right. We started off in PA and moved to MN. Quite a temp drop (but really nice summers)

If I were you I'd just put out a new thread more PA-specific: "Calling all Pennsylvania Chicken Owners...or at least 5 or 6 of you"

All the best in your new location!

I have only been in PA about two years but i Usually hatch babies no later than september so by the time the temps start to drop they can keeo warm alone more than likely because we have nowhere to run the lamp. Last year we had early snow at the end of october but my Hatchlings from late august did fine... hope that helps !!!

You may get different answers, depending on what part of pa, but here in lancaster county I tend to stop hatching in early sept, The one I am on now will be the last for the year, except quail, but I house them inside a barn in the winter.....will start the incubator back up in late feb-early march depending on weather.....This depends on breed also, my first hatch in spring will be all large fowl, my bantam breeds do not do as well in early spring,,,very wet and windy here at that time.

Luckily, or unluckily, my birds are locked inside a barn. They can't be outside thanks to predation. I tried hatching in late December (what I did in OK), but it didn't work out as well as I hoped it would.

Do you hatch mainly in the spring or the late summer?

Me personally late spring to early fall

It all depends on the shows you plan to go to. We try to hatch all of our birds here in NE Washington around February so they are ready for all the fall shows. But this year, we will be hatching a few batches this fall so we will have layers first thing in the spring to provide the production style chicks to sell at swaps and such

I only have bantams but most people I know give their birds a rest with the decrease in light hours and then start adding light in late December and incubating in mid January on. Mine weren't hatched till March and are not fully grown (as most slower growing breeds) for any shows in October for sure.