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.
