Do I have this timeline correct? 1 day to egg lay.

I personally like starting with day-old chicks. That way I know how they have been fed and cared for, and they do not bring with them the risk of diseases, lice, mites, or bad habits, all of which are found in abundance on Craigslist. Plus chicks are just so darn cute and fun, especially for kids. It will just be a short wait until you get eggs, and by then your pullets will be pretty tame and used to your family.

So I could raise the chicks outside if I waited for the temperatures to warm up and use a heat lamp?

So what if my timeline was:

Mar-Apr: Build coop
May: Get chicks and use coop as brooder
Oct/Nov get my first eggs which is not great

detz said:

So I could raise the chicks outside if I waited for the temperatures to warm up and use a heat lamp?

So what if my timeline was:

Mar-Apr: Build coop
May: Get chicks and use coop as brooder
Oct/Nov get my first eggs which is not great

Click to expand...

Lots of people brood their chicks outside. They just need to be in a place that has no draft that can hit them and a light to get under for heat.

I had 22 chickens - Red Sex Links, Easter Eggers, Buff Orpingtons, Cuckoo Marans, Golden Laced Wyandottes, and Speckled Sussex - to start with. I am now down to 10 chickens, plus Baby Scout, an EE chick who is being treated for frostbitten feet. I kept the Easter Eggers because mine are kid friendly and lay beautiful blue eggs regularly, the Red Sex Links because mine are quiet, unassuming birds who lay like crazy, the Marans who have not let up on laying despite the winter weather, and one Buff Orpington. I was not impressed with the Buffs, nor did I like the Wyandottes, but I kept one of the Orpingtons hoping that her eggs would get bigger as she got older. They didn't - her eggs are always small to medium. The Speckled Sussex were pretty birds, curious and friendly, but that's about all I can say about them.

If you want heavy egg producers, be prepared to deal with the excess, and there will more than likely be excess over and above what your family needs. I found that out the hard way when the eggs just kept coming faster than me, friends and family could use them. Had eggs in two refrigerators! Now I have a couple of regular customers who buy eggs from me and that's working out well with just the 10 layers.

Personally I'll never brood chicks in the house again. It took weeks to get the dust and dander out of here. They'll be brooded directly in the coop using the heating pad method. I'm using that in in the house for Baby Scout and what a difference that has made! But what's right for us might not be the answer for your situation, so sift through all of the answers you get and pick what you think would work for you.

You can do a whole lot of different things, even in Massachusetts. You can brood them in your house or outside of your house any time of the year. All you need is a brooder where one end is warm enough, it is draft-free, and is predator proof. That can be in a coop, in an outbuilding, in a garage either attached or detached, or somewhere in your house. I personally would never brood them in the house because of the noise, smell, and dust. I really like being married to my current and forever-only wife. But many people do.

My brooder is in the coop. I put chicks in it straight from the incubator last February when the outside temperatures were well below freezing. You have less margin for error than with warmer weather but it is certainly doable in winter.

I strongly believe in having things ready early. A good way to make God laugh is to make plans. If you plan too tightly all it takes is a family emergency or just a freak weekend of bad weather to destroy any schedule.

I firmly believe in providing more space than you think you will need. You can follow the link in my signature for some thoughts on space, but I find the tighter I pack them the more behavioral problems I have to deal with, the harder I have to work, and the less flexibility I have in dealing with any problems that do show up.

Your breed selection is fine. In my opinion people get way too hung up on breed selection if you are talking about hatchery birds or even most breeder birds. Certain breeds are supposed to have certain traits but there are very few breeders in the country that actually select their breeding birds based on the personality as well as other traits the breed is supposed to have. For example, Rhode Island Reds have a bad reputation as far as behavior on this forum, but a certain forum member who breeds RIR’s have perfectly behaved chickens. He selects his breeders based on personality and behavior as well as how they look or lay. Another factor is that each chicken is an individual. Even if you have a chicken from a flock that is bred to have certain traits, you have to have enough of that breed for the averages to mean anything. You can’t take any one bird and say that is average for the breed. It just doesn’t work that way.

Easter Eggers are not a breed. They are simply birds that should have the chance of having the blue egg gene. Most hatchery EE’s are going to lay fairly well because most hatcheries tend to select their breeding birds from the ones that lay well. They may or may not lay blue or green eggs. An EE is just as likely to be a good producer for you as any other chicken.

The red and black sex links can be made many different ways. They might be crosses from two specific breeds. You can use many different breeds to make these sex links. They inherit their laying ability and their personality traits from their parents. Since the breeds that hatcheries use to make this kind of sex links generally come from really good laying flocks, these sex links generally lay really well. Or they may come from the commercial egg-laying hybrids. These tend to be smaller is size, lay fairly large eggs, and take confinement well. That’s how they are bred. Saying that a hen is a black sex link or a red sex link really doesn’t say anything about the chicken other than it is a sex link.

I have had pullets start laying at 16 weeks. I’ve had pullets start laying at 9 months. These were from the same basic stock. Each hen is an individual and you have to have enough for the averages to mean anything. I’d agree that the average hatchery pullet from most production breeds or crosses will start to lay somewhere around 5 to 6 months of age, but with only three it doesn’t take much for your averages to be way off. They are not programmed like one of these devices people carry everywhere. They are individual living animals so you cannot know exactly what to expect.

You sound like you are a person that likes to plan. That is great. You have to have a plan. But you also have to build in flexibility. You are dealing with weather and living animals. As any good military commander knows, a plan is only good until the battle starts. A good plan can put you in a good position to win that battle, but how you handle the unexpected will determine the eventual outcome.

It sounds like you are not that worried about raising the chicks yourself and that you want eggs fairly early. You could find the Massachusetts thread in the “Where am I? Where are you!” section of this forum and see what is available near you from other members. You probably have several neighbors that could help you out with started pullets especially if you are not hung up on a certain breed. You may be able to work out something else, maybe split an order or where they raise your chicks until you are ready to take them.

Part of the problem is that you have so many different ways you could go that if can be hard to settle on one. With chickens there is hardly ever one way that is the one right way to do anything where every other way is wrong. In practically everything to do with chickens, there are usually several different things that will work.

Good luck and welcome to the adventure. There will be some frustration involved but you should enjoy the journey.

I always like Ridgrunners comments.

Detz, what I was saying about a temporary predator proof coop is what another posted commented on is to use a large dog carrier as the coop. Things like this and old kids play houses make great grow out coops. The chicks aren't chicks and not full grown birds so don't take a lot of space to roost at night. You still have to build a pen but the grow out coop just set's in it for shelter/protection. When I said you've all summer to build the coop it's almost true. The pen is what matters to contain the birds and minor protection. First thing to build as chicks are brooding. Temp grow out coops are simple as long as you keep in mind full protection from weasels/racoons etc.

Coop planing and building is fun and worth taking your time getting the way you want it. Have late spring and much of the summer to build it in the pen you put up in spring that the birds are in. They like to check out the construction and will obviously mark their lumber so gloves are handy but still fun to have around while you work.

So I'm thinking of getting day olds and keeping them in the house for the first few weeks (maybe three?) until they outgrow the rubbermaid container. Once they've outgrown this is when they'll start to smell and feather so I'll move them to the coop with the door closed and a heat lamp. Does this sound logical?

sounds like a plan to me!