Age for toleration of winter cold?

[yyz0yyz0]

Hello all,
I want to get chicks this spring/summer but I'm not ready yet and not sure when I will have everything ready for them. I don't want to be in a situation where I have a cardboard box full of chicks while I'm trying to plan/design/build their coop/run. I'd rather have it all built or at least started before I get the chicks. I'm still working through the design elements and also have a lot of other things going on right now. If I have to wait for next season I'm ok with that but would prefer to get them this year.

So my question is how old do your chicks/chickens need to be to survive the cold without supplemental heating? ie, how late in the spring can I still get chicks that will be big enough by fall to survive the winter? If I could wait till July to get the chicks that would be great but don't know if they'll be old enough to survive when the cold comes.

thanks

 

[Fred's Hens]

We hatched out a bunch of chick's on Christmas Day (silly, I know). Brooded them out in the unheated garage. Now, at 7 weeks they are out in the barn with no heat. They've already gone through a couple of sub zero nights with no problems.

I suspect that tells you what you need to know.

Bottom line is they will be fine. They just need to be feathered out and adjusted. That's all.






Garage brooder.

Here they are, out in their barn pen. Happy, happy, happy.