Chicks vs Pullets

[CrazyTalk]

At only .55 difference per bird, I'd guess that 'pullet' means 'female sexed chick' in their language.

Timing is important here, as is atmosphere - the chicks I hatch out in February have heavy heatlamp usage. The chicks I hatch out in June are under the heatlamp the day they're born (max a week), and then they go out in a brooder in the barn with no lamp and do fine.

A lot of my chicks are fine with standard 60w incandescent bulbs. The real early ones I use 150w heat bulbs at first.

Heat lamps shouldn't cost you much though - if you're seeing huge increases in cost, something is wrong.
150w * 24hours * 30 days / 1000w = 108 kwh. Typical rates in the US are anywhere form .06/kwh to .20/kwh (.12 is average) - so anywhere from $6 to $20/month to run a 150w bulb 24 hours a day.
so anywhere from $2-6 for a 60w.

 

[Fleetwood77]

They are simply referring to pullet (female) chicks. They will still be day old chicks. To buy a 8-10 week old pullet that is off of heat, expect to pay $8-15 each.

Ah ok. I'm not sure if they sell the older ones then.

 

[Fleetwood77]

At only .55 difference per bird, I'd guess that 'pullet' means 'female sexed chick' in their language.

Timing is important here, as is atmosphere - the chicks I hatch out in February have heavy heatlamp usage. The chicks I hatch out in June are under the heatlamp the day they're born (max a week), and then they go out in a brooder in the barn with no lamp and do fine.

A lot of my chicks are fine with standard 60w incandescent bulbs. The real early ones I use 150w heat bulbs at first.

Heat lamps shouldn't cost you much though - if you're seeing huge increases in cost, something is wrong.
150w * 24hours * 30 days / 1000w = 108 kwh. Typical rates in the US are anywhere form .06/kwh to .20/kwh (.12 is average) - so anywhere from $6 to $20/month to run a 150w bulb 24 hours a day.
so anywhere from $2-6 for a 60w.

Thank you for the info! It says their first hatch date is February 11th. So I was looking at getting them sometime between then and mid-March.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Exactly, you don't need 250W heat lamps or multiple ones for a few chicks. I'd brood 18 chicks in a large plastic tote with a 100W bulb hanging from a dry wall light on one side. Less birds a small tote and 60W bulb to one side. That's not a lot of electricity.

You can see my old "brooder" set up was inexpensive. Thin layer of pine shavings, a secured metal hood light (old dry wall light), incandescent bulb of 60W and a plastic tote. Now I hatch a lot of chicks at a time so use a large farm water trough and 150W heat lamp with heavy duty heat lamp fixture.

At 2.5 weeks I turn off the heat for 4 or so hours a day then off for entire day at 3 weeks and off completely at 3.5 weeks when brooded indoors. I put the chicks outside at 4 weeks in mid to late April. I say chicks as it's their age. Pullet or straight run is all female or mixed sex. The term pullet is used for females from hatch to one year of age, cockerel is male from hatch to one year of age. Cock and Hen are the terms for sex over one year old.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

If you look around on craigslist in spring you'll find older pullet chicks but wont get all the breeds you want. Also you'd end up with varying age chicks which can lead to behavior problems. The flock is so much better when all of them are brooded at the same time. Not to mention you get to bond with the birds from day one or two to learn with them from the start. It's really worth it to brood and not hard at all to do. The only pain is keeping pine shavings out of the water and feed dispensers as they need to be so low when they are chicks.

 

[dawncpierce]

My hubby and I are purchasing our chickens from Dunlap. They sell their breeders at the end if the "season." So, they are already laying and under a year old. Getting 6 barred rock.

...

They are simply referring to pullet (female) chicks. They will still be day old chicks. To buy a 8-10 week old pullet that is off of heat, expect to pay $8-15 each.[/quote