Getting chick fever but looking for advice on growing flock from 7 to 10

[Cpgrnwd]

I'm trying to figure out how to grow my flock this year and I welcome any advice. Sorry for the long post!

My coop is currently 4x8 but i am taking down the divider and giving them the full 8x8 shed. I plan to enclose the area under my 3 nest boxes for use as needed for isolation. The covered run is 5 x15 im thinking about expanding it or adding an adjacent run or maybe electric netting...someway of providing more space.

My girls are pets and their eggs are in high demand by immediate family. We started last March with 6 day old chicks from the feed store (which has since changed ownership again..). We purchased "pullets" but had to rehome a cockrell around thanksgiving .

Down one I added 3 pol pullets. ignorant to protocol i put them right in and after a couple weeks of behaving like 2 flocks everyone has settled in. I lost one of my original girls to a reproductive infection so I have 7 and ideally i would love to add 3 and up the color palette in the egg basket.

I was hoping to add a cream legbar, an olive egger, and some type of maran but im not sure that i can find that selection anywhere without buying more than I plan to keep (maybe i could fo this).

I have found a local farm that will sell feathered pullets in july. This is an option but if if go this route can i put the chicks right in the coop? They will sell eggs also.

Would it be better to get hatching eggs? I have a hen that i know will sit on them, i really don't want to do the chicks in the house again but i also think the chicks i raised from day 2 are more friendly and responsive than the girls i added pol.

I'm not opposed to returning to a box store either but perhaps if i go that route i should be looking for autosexing breeds. Are there autosexing breeds that hit the colored egg varieties that have good personalities?

if it's possible to figure out a way to just add 3 baby chicks to the flock with low rooster risk

 

[rosemarythyme]

You will need a larger run for sure, so make sure that gets installed before you add more birds.

I have found a local farm that will sell feathered pullets in july. This is an option but if if go this route can i put the chicks right in the coop?

With any new additions regardless of age, it's best to integrate them in over a few weeks, starting with see but no touch, where the 2 groups can see each other through a fence but not harm one another.

Would it be better to get hatching eggs? I have a hen that i know will sit on them, i really don't want to do the chicks in the house again but i also think the chicks i raised from day 2 are more friendly and responsive than the girls i added pol.

If you have a good broody that would make integration easier on you. Downside is, you don't know what genders you will end up with.

Has this hen ever raised chicks? Even with a dedicated broody she may not be a great mother (you won't know until she tries) so be set up and prepared to raise the chicks regardless, just in case.