Chicks are ordered!!!

[barred rock]

50 Chicks have been ordered for the first of February. Anyone else get their chicks this early???

 

[LipsChicks]

I would love to but I live in North Dakota. Wind chill 30 below today.

 

[Dawn1058]

I ordered mine and they will be here the last week in January. I live in Southwestern PA.

 

[kmartinez]

I am getting mine. I am going to have to house them in my garage anyway for awhile. I am to scared of the cold but I want their immunity up before i place them in the yard. so i am thinking 3 or 4 weeks in spare room and another 3 or 4 weeks or maybe a bit more in my garage to transition them..I maybe overly worried last fall my neighbor got some chicks from a local hatchery here i was going to get some their to until i researched went against it because mareks is linked back to them. So i opted for mail order little tykes. Was told not to put them in the yard for at least 3 weeks so I think i am going to keep them out of the yard for a good while to insure their immunity is up

 

[Ridgerunner]

Mine are due Friday February 13th. That’s the earliest I could get what I want shipped.

Kmartinez, who told you to not let them on the ground until 3 weeks and, more importantly, did they tell you why? I purposely feed mine dirt from the adult run at Day 2 or so. This does three things for me. It gets grit into their system. They may not need it but it is there if they do need it. It introduces any probiotics the adults have to the chicks. And it introduces anything bad in the ground or in the flock to them. That’s how they develop flock immunities. They all get exposed to the same stuff.

My brooder is in the coop to start with so they are going to be exposed to many things the adults have anyway at the start, but by getting their immune system working early I think it gives them a stronger immune system. Coccidiosis is an easy example, but there are others. If exposed to Coccidiosis for about two to three weeks, the chicks develop immunity to that strain. If you keep the brooder dry it is unlikely Coccidiosis will be a problem for them, but there are a couple of strains of Coccidiosis that could still be a problem. I can more easily watch and observe the chicks in the brooder to watch for signs of problems and treat if necessary. By the time my chicks hit the ground they will already have developed immunity to the strain I know is in my ground.

An all too often occurrence on this forum is that people keep their chicks in as sterile an environment as they can while in the brooder, maybe even feeding medicated feed to them. Then when the chicks hit the ground and are exposed to the Coccidiosis in the soil for the first time they get seriously sick because they have not developed the immunity they need. The risk is higher if it happens to be a rainy wet period when they first go out.

That’s what I do and why. You need to read different opinions and decide which is the best way for you to go. Good luck!