Hatching eggs this time of year??

[yotetrapper]

I havent been here for a while, been busy with work, vacations, and now canning like mad, so I came here today and checked out the buy/sell/trade section and was shocked to see how much action was over there...I expected it to be dead. So for all you people buying and hatching eggs....do you ALL live in the south?? If not, how do you deal with baby chicks this time of the year? I couldnt imagine what I would do with young chicks in December and January....

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

I'm in the south plus I have a brooder made out of a deep freeze so there warm.

 

[hinkjc]

I hatch through winter, but have electric in my coops so I can put heat lamps in there when I need to.

 

[labhaven]

I've been wondering the same thing. I'm in central NY state and the winters can get pretty harsh here. I'm building a 12 x 12 coop within my barn to house some chickens. I'm mostly new to raising chickens and want to make sure I get a nice friendly flock. I'd love to start with chicks and raise them fully myself rather than buying older birds from someone. I do have electric in my barn so I'd have the ability to heat a space for them. Any suggestions? Go with chicks this time of year or get some older birds? Thanks!

 

[Katy]

I too hatch pretty much year round. I keep them in the basement for the first couple of weeks and then they move out to brooders in the coop. As long as they are in a draft free place with a heat lamp they do fine.

 

[Tuffoldhen]

The incubators here have been going since last January! I just had a super duper brooder built for the garage and will use heat lamps if I decide to keep hatching thru Dec.

New breeder pens being built soon will be insulated and have accessibility to electric. As the boy scouts say be prepared!

when being addicted!

 

[ThePamperedPullet]

We live in Florida but it still gets down into the teens during the winter. But we started in hatching last December and went until July and didn't have any problems. And we also have 3 girls that just love to go broody and one hatched 4 days ago and another hatched 2 days ago.
We keep our bator hatched chicks in the house until they are 3 weeks and then they go to a elevated growing pen outside until they are about 6 weeks before they are introduced to the rest of the flock. In the growing pen, if it is going to be cold, I took a large plastic tote and mounted a ceramic lamp holder to the inside bottom and ran a cord out the bottom that can be plugged in. I cut a 8 inch diameter hole in one end of the tote. Put a 85 watt red flood light bulb in it. Put the lid on and flipped it upside down. We place an old bath towel flat inside for the chicks to lay on. The hole that was cut is positioned so that when the tote is flipped the chicks can easily get in and out.
This works great for about 25 chicks and keeps them toasty warm on days as cold as 12 degrees. The feeder and waterer are placed just outside the tote so they don't have to go far.
After the chicks feather out more, we then take the lid off the tote so the droppings can fall through the wire floor.