How early did you order/get your chicks?

[MustLoveHens]

I orderd 25 babies today and they will be here April 1st of all days! lol. I will brood them out in an dog ex-pen with a lamp in a corner of my three season porch. It's preditor proof and I can keep my eye on the peepsters. If that does not work, I can always move them into the basement.
Once they hit about 8 weeks and are fully feathered they will got outside. Im building a "chicken ark". I got the idea from a turkey magazine that had an article on turkey housing. It's basically a pen like structure make from PVC and chicken wire with a tarp over the top. I just need a hack saw, pvc glue, zip ties, and a good staple gun and Im good to go! Im so not handy in anyway shape or form, but the instructions for the turkey ark were so simple I figured it would be a lot cheaper then buying a coop and run. Plus like a tractor, I can move it around! At might they will go in the garage in a huge dog crate with perches.
Honestly, place your chick order. The hatchery will give you a date of arrival so you will know when you need to have your brooder up and this will give your husband and your friend a date that the coop must be up. End of story. Otherwise, the shed you have sounds great! You can corden off a section for the chickens and with a little ingenuity I sure you can figure out how to keep the chicks on their side of the shed!

Good luck!

 

[blefky]

I'm with "A Rose for Heaven", after last year's "brooder in the living room" fiasco, (thought my family was going to move and not take me!) mine are brooding in the garage this year. I did keep them inside for about a week, but as soon as that chicken dust started to kick up - out they went. I found shower curtain liners at Stop and Shop for 1.50 apiece and strung them all around the ping pong table where the brooder sits. Nobody hates me this year!

There are only five 3 week old coronation and light sussex chicks in there right now, but there are 27 eggs in the incubator due to hatch the first couple days of March.

 

[catdaddy66]

I had not thought about using sheets/shower curtains as wind and dust covers... That just might work!! My wife insists that the babies brood outside this spring and have been formulating a workable strategy for this approach. Hhhmmmm...!

 

[Donner]

I ordered my 25 (received 30 including a roo) at the end of September and they were outside in the coop towards the end of November. And, we had to scramble to build the coop because my wife decided to order chicks before the coop was ready.

In the future, since I have a roo I am planning on letting any broodies hatch eggs. Or, if the feed store has chicks put chicks under the broody.

 

[Momagain1]

mwuahuaaaaa I win

I get to order chicks this wk!!

He said "OH I GUESS I'll call Craig in the morning and we can use his brooding stuff; he may actually have extra chicken wire laying
around and we can fix the shed up.." (his wacky off the wall brother has free range (mostly) chickens..)

Yippee skippeee I win..what woman DOESNT LOVE TO SAY THOSE WORDS??? Seriously; no flowers, chocolate on Valentines day..but I got
the almost 100% go ahead for chicks! LOL...

He did put a stipulation on it tho; GET CHEAPER CHICKS b/c I'm sure they'll not survive while we're learning..we'll get pretty/more $ breeds
next yr ..

oh well; he said YES

 

[maclady]

Congrats! Hope you get your coop built. I am still building mine and pick up my 4 BO babies on Sat. Husband had to work this past weekend so I went out and used his tools to do a bunch on the coop myself. Sometimes just easier to do it yourself. That way you also get exactly what you want. I also have to brood mine in the garage. Using a very large wire dog crate. Think I am gong to try to put plywood around it. Originally thinking cardboard. Cat would love the snack idea if they were in the house. Good luck with your coop.

 

[gritsar]

I feel that April is the best time to order chicks in my area, after the weather has settled down to reasonably warm.

My first flock arrived in April. The second order I had to reschedule several times and ended up getting them in early June. Much too warm in our area by then. At two weeks old I was having to worry about keeping them cool, not warm.

Either way it didn't matter. They still had to live on the screened porch until their coop was ready.

Never again

 

[mstricer]

I get mine next Monday, 11 Cornish-X and 4 Ameruacanas. I will set up pool brooder for meaties till they are 3 weeks then move them out to the tyractor with straw and a light.
Everyone else will continue to stay in attached garage.

 

[ginormous chicken]

I ordered mine in December! My order does not come until April. We are on Vk the first week of March. That give me about 2 months to get the coop up and running before they are out of the brooder. Believe me the DH is frazzled with a 2 month time line!

 

[Momagain1]

I ordered:

Red Sexlink
turkens
Barred Plymouth
Rhode Island
Black Australop



they ship monday! nice timing too; as it'll be in mid-upper 50's but rainy..

OK DONT laugh at the turkens..

I had california white but they are flighty and dont tolerate confinement the best..what I read..so I had to change
so I picked the turkens..ugly but good egg layers and tolerate confinement...I had to order several; due to my
stupid overwhelming mother urge that one would be picked on cause he's ugly lolol..j/k..sorta