by pass chick raising

[tav1]

Was thinking about raising chicks in a brooder till time to put in the coop....but not shur if i want to go thru all that ,maybe buy them a little older and directly intro them to the coop. What do you think?

 

[DanEP]

Either way works but if you have a local source for the breeds you want then at least you have a pretty good chance of knowing the sex of older chicks. This time of year you may still have to keep at least some heat on chicks that are 3-4 weeks old till they are fully feathered and acclimate to you weather.If the chickens are older you should have no problems as long as they are dry and out of drafts. The only problem with buying older chickens is they can take awhile to get used to you and some may never warm up to you just learn to tolerate you but may still be kind of flighty. This is not much of a problem if you start with 2 day olds that grow up having you around.
It depends on what you want out of your chickens. If you want lap chickens then raising babys is the easier way to go, but if you just want chickens to get a few eggs then the older birds are definitely the easier way to go.

 

[aart]

You can buy started pullets, but they can be expensive depending on breed and the market in your area.

Buying older birds rather than day old's also introduces the need to quarantine from and then integrate with existing birds and the possibility of bringing disease and parasites into your coop and onto your land.

 

[tav1]

No younger chicks.....just 2 or 3 hens about 6-8 months old. Thats all I want.

 

[donrae]

I raise pullets to point of lay and sell all I can raise, so you're not the only one. Lots of folks don't want to mess with brooding chicks. $20 for a pullet that's either laying or very close sounds like a bargain to folks compared to messing with a brooder, heat lamp. chick starter, losing chicks, and waiting 6 months for that first egg.

 

[tav1]

Well as long as I can find them I don't mind paying the price. I know tractor supply has chicks but do they have older ones also in the spring.

 

[donrae]

I don't think TSC does older birds at all. Some smaller/private feed stores seem to have adult birds from time to time from what folks post here...mine never do, only day old chicks.

 

[Julia62]

I got my pullets at 10-12 weeks old from a "Chicken Swap" at a local feed store. They are now 7.5 months old. I didn't want babies either. I also adopt adult dogs, no puppies