Here's a few dumbie questions about the first few weeks...

[DellaMyDarling]

Anxiously awaiting the day I can order our chicks, and then of course for their arrival! Here's a few dumb questions I need answered so that I am prepared.

I plan to order about 20 female chicks for our first go-around at chicken raising (so, there's no other birds here to worry about integration with yet.) We live in zone 5b, so I won't have them arrive until probably late April, giving us a higher chance of warm weather.

Was eyeballing a "starter kit" from the hatchery that includes plastic paneling as walls for the brooder plus most of the early essentials needed. States that it can house up to 25 chicks for 2 weeks. "Great!" I thought, until I remembered that there's a long way to go between week 2 and having chicks that are bigger and more independent.
For some reason I was thinking they'd go from baby brooder bin to outside/coop. Dummy.

The brooder will not be inside the house, we simply haven't the room and my partner has severe asthma, and so it will go right out into the coop. Our coop will be approximately one half of a 10'x20' shed. It has a brand new metal roof on it. It is professionally wired for electricity. Two small windows, but also two vents in the eaves of the roof, and we have a few different fan systems that can be installed for the summer air circulation needs. The other half will one day be a goat night home, and so we will build a simple 2x4 and chicken wire barrier for the chicken half to start with. I plan to do some sort of linoleum/tub lining along walls and floor to make cleaning easy.
When old enough, our birds will primarily free range as happy hens.

Since I thought the brooder would keep them contained longer, long enough to continue procrastination on finishing the chicken half of the shed during warmer weather, I'm not sure what I need to do for my in-between brooder and free range stage.
We do not have finalized plans for how the inside of the chicken enclosure will look yet, since nesting boxes and high perches are so far down the road haha.

Am I going to NEED to nearly finish the coop side of the shed before 2 weeks of age?
At 2 weeks of age, what DO these chicks need from me?
They can move from the brooder to larger enclosure (let's estimate 10'x8' floor space) then? OR should I buy extra panels from the hatchery to make my brooder pen bigger at that point?
Is this panel type brooder pen a dumb idea all together, or are there other manufactured ones you'd recommend? I've looked up a few home made brooders, but I'm far more comfortable with this contraption I think, especially for 20 chicks.
I'll make sure to do more thorough reading on temperature requirements in spring, because there really is no typical weather pattern expected in my zone at that time of year (I'll be kept on my toes keeping them the right temp for sure.)

Oh my. So much to know.

 

[PirateGirl]

Since you have electricity in the shed I don't see any reason why you couldn't just brood them in their half of the shed. I'm not convinced you need a separate brooder so much as making sure they have everything they need in the shed, then when they are feathered and larger and the weather is right you can start introducing them to the outdoors. If it's unfinished you can just run cardboard or plywood across the bottom (maybe 3 feet tall) to confine them for now and divide the shed in half.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I wouldn't bother with the starter kit, they're usually small and honestly not necessary. Since you don't have chickens already you can brood right in the coop, so I would prioritize at least getting the coop section fully enclosed (nest and roosts can wait until they're older), though with such a large coop you may want to cobble together a brooding box to keep the chicks relatively contained, as chicks can wander off in too large a space. The box could be something as simple as a couple cardboard appliance boxes or melon boxes from a store (if you ask around stores are often looking to dump boxes). Once the chicks outgrow the box they can be released into the coop to grow a little more, then once they're decently feathered they can have some outside time.

 

[blackdog043]

Yes, to both of the above posts! Make your brooder in the coop. Use cardboard to make a smaller area, for the first couple weeks, then adjust as needed.

 

[CannedMonster]

PLEASE consider using a heat plate or Mama Heating Pad instead of a heat lamp!
It’s so much better and there’s no fire hazard.
You can get heat plates for chicks on Amazon.
I use the Premier 1 brand and I love it.
It’s a much more natural way to provide heat for the chicks.
They don’t constantly have a light on so they get used to normal night and day cycles.
They can go underneath the heat plate when they’re scared too.
Also, if you don’t have a box you could just fashion a fenced area in the shed for them when they’re small so they don’t wander far from their heat, food and water.

 

[DellaMyDarling]

Hmm, ok, glad I asked these silly questions!
Fire hazard certainly is scary, and always on our minds up in the hills.

I keep changing my mind on how many chicks and of what sex I wish to order. We will eventually be in the habit of meat and egg production, but I think I'd like to wait a year or so before diving into the ugliness of meat harvesting. Even with that said, should I order one male of each of the 4 varieties of chicks I want? Could keep the number at 20 total still.
What is the likelihood of being able to raise 4 gentle roos with 16 hens? Not so good, eh? Someone will end up on the block, right? And, how soon will I be facing that? This brings me back to my experiences with mean roos as a kid...

Is 20 chicks just too many to begin with? Uh oh, chicken math.

The ultimate goal over the next few years is to be able to cycle in new chicks with enough regularity in order to maintain a flock large enough for sustainable meat and egg production. Much to learn about all of this, of course.

 

[PirateGirl]

Unless you are breeding with a goal of keeping your lines pure, there is no reason you need one male of each breed. If you want to keep your lines pure that means you will need to separate all your breeds anyway (sounds like 4 groups in your case), so having multiple males will not be an issue if they are all separated. Having one or two males in your flock should keep your ladies fertile and allow you to hatch eggs down the line and keep your flock production going.

 

[MissChick@dee]

You’re smart to wait till spring to get your chicks. Once fully feathered they can regulate their body heat.
Out of drafts and cooler wind inside the shed they should be fine.
Only one thing stood out to me. A 10x20 shed is a good size for a coop of 25 ... adult birds. I think they’ll use and you’ll need every bit of it for the chickens. I wouldn’t portion off part of it for the goats.

 

[DellaMyDarling]

You’re smart to wait till spring to get your chicks. Once fully feathered they can regulate their body heat.
Out of drafts and cooler wind inside the shed they should be fine.
Only one thing stood out to me. A 10x20 shed is a good size for a coop of 25 ... adult birds. I think they’ll use and you’ll need every bit of it for the chickens. I wouldn’t portion off part of it for the goats.

So, if we portioned off roughly a 10'x8', ceilings are (rogue guess here) 8' at the height we'll place a top beam with roosting perches at various heights, you wouldn't think this is large enough for about 20 full sized birds? My key factor in this math was knowing that they will be free-ranging most of their lives, reducing any coop stress related to space. I've read that they will generally accept a much smaller coop space per bird as long as they maintain that free-range access.
However, this is exactly why I am here, because I don't know all my things

The goats are such a long ways down the road I think. Ideally, we will only be putting them in the shed at night (big predators around here, neighbors keep losing their 3-sided sheltered goats, so a lean-to won't cut it IMO). The plan is to fence off a large portion, good acre+, of our boring grass and seed it into a delicious assortment of goat edible forage. I'm talking one Mama goat, a juvenile, and a baby at max goat capacity with the intent to sell off one youngster at a time. The other shed half will also be a wee snug for goats, but again they can be outside 80% of their lives in a big open space.

 

[PirateGirl]

You will get many opinions on how many square feet are needed in coop and/or run per bird. Personally I feel that 4 square feet per bird seems adequate in the coop provided they have access to additional outdoor space.