best time of year for chicks?

[perrycountychicken1]

we have a great chicken coop. large, draft free, lots of space to roost, pearch etc. as well as a large, safe, preditor free, enclosed run. we have not put chickens in it...yet. reason being is that we would like to begin with peeps, unfortunatly the hubby and i work all day and together so our schedule is exactly the same. so it would be hard for us to keep an eye on them all the time for the first 5weeks. how do you suggest we start? should we scratch the peeps idea and just go with puttets? i'm sure we're not the only ones to have had these problems. Summer is our busy season so 12 - 14 hour days aren't unusual. we don't have family that we could ask to help keep an eye on the chicks either. but if we wait until the fall/winter we're afraid they'll have trouble with the cold. Help
p.s. if we get older chicks now and do peeps in the winter, how difficult will it be to intergrate our flock? should all birds be the same breed or will things go smoother if they're all different?

 

[gritsar]

IMO, springtime or early summer is the best time for chicks; especially if you are going to mail order them.
If you can provide them with a safe brooder with foolproof heat, plenty of food and water there's no reason they couldn't be alone for 14 hrs. You'd just want to take extra steps to insure that their water can't be spilled and is not deep enough for them to drown in. Also, provide enough feeders so they don't run out.

 

[Judy]

Also, different breeds are not a problem to integrate or live together. But different ages are, or can be, or often are....

I'd get them, but I would try to get as many as I want for the first year all at once.

I am sure you can figure out how to keep food and water available during your work hours. If you goof, you will learn, and they are unlikely to die in 14 hours, at lest after the first day or two, if you are dealing with shipped chicks. They are much stronger and more resilient after they get past the shipping stress. It will just take some planning and research.

Temp and water will be the most critical. Temps of course aren't a big problem; just set up the brooder and see what temps it provides. Remember they will warm it up a bit, too.

In your situation I would certainly go with the ball waterers, or rabbit waterers. They can't turn them over or get them dirty -- but they can drink them dry if you don't have enough. You could use a couple of standard ones for backup. They sometimes need to be taught to use the ball waterers, but it does not take them long. Just plan ahead. Be sure they can't turn over the feeders, for example. Just takes some thinking through. And yes, I'd have more than one feeder and waterer, even for a few chicks.

If you are off on weekends, of course it would be great to get them on a Friday or Saturday. If not, well... you might be a bit short on sleep for a night or two. Should be doable, though, and you will have it all figured out pretty quickly. They are really pretty hardy little critters.

Big problem with older ones is ensuring they are disease free. Not easy to do unless you really know your source.

 

[firedove]

I don't think there is a "best time of year" for shipping peeps. But if I had to come up with one I'd say get them in April if you are going to have them shipped in. April is usually warm enough that the chicks freezing en route is not as big a problem but still cool enough that they don't usually get heat stroke during shipping. I got my chicks just fine in February but lots of people get dead chicks in shipping during freezing temps. As the year warms up you risk getting dead chicks in shipping from the heat, especially if the chicks are left in an un-air conditioned PO truck for a long period of time.

If you get your chicks locally from a feed store or farm then it's best to get them around now or slightly earlier in the year. By the time they come out of the brooder with all their feathers they can go right outside with no heat worries. Where you are in the country will make a difference as to how early they can go out since warmer places, the chicks can go out earlier.

There are plenty of ways to introduce young chicks to older chicks (chickens). I think the key thing is to have a place where the chicks can be in sight but separated OR have a place where the chicks can go under and hide from the older chickens. My young batch, in the coop now with my older adult chickens, hides under the nesting boxes when the older chickens get too rowdy. They are getting used to each other and sharing pretty well now but the chicks having a place to get away was the most important part of introducing them. Also the first few days after I put the little ones into the coop I would go out early in the am to let the older chickens out to free range before too much trouble was stirred up in the coop. The little ones stuck to the coop for the first week or so even though the door was open all the time during the day.

 

[cmom]

I agree with gritsar. Also the spring/summer is the best time if you are working as the weather will be warmer so you won't have to worry about the chicks getting cold. I have had my chicks during the winter months and I work graveyard shift. One morning when I came home from work, the brooder lamp had burned out. The temperature in the brooder wasn't bad as I had the brooder covered so there was still some heat in it. It happened to be a very cold night and I had put some extra covering on it luckily. I had a wireless digital thermometer with an alarm in the brooder but my husband didn't hear it go off. The chicks were ok and I had another lamp so I put it in.

 

[Young MacDonald]

 

[perrycountychicken1]

thank you all so much the information is just what we needed. it has given us some great tips annd ideas. we'll let you know how it goes.

 

[Big Chicken Little]

Ah go ahead and take the plunge since you are all set up ..you won't regret it ! Then you to will have chicken fever