How often do you add chicks?

[aart]

I have limited coop space and an un-weatherproofed run,
so winter can get coop cabin-fever crazy, that's my population limiter.
I hatch new birds every year.... and give, sell, or slaughter birds every year.
All cockerels are now gone, had 9 this year.
Oldest and/or nonproductive hens will be gone before cold weather hits.
I keep half pullets and half hens over winter.
Will have to sell a few POL pullets this year to get numbers down to what fits well in coop during those days long snowstorms.

Egg production will always fluctuate, even when adding chicks every year.
I can cover all my feed and most bedding costs with egg sales annually,
some months are in the red some are in the black.
I only have a small customer base and they understand and work around the fluctuations of egg availability. Winter lighting can help keep production up, need a timer for sure but for how long and when to use light there are many options...and nothing is guaranteed.

My goal is to maintain a large enough flock to sell some eggs, but not so large that I'm constantly running out of coop/run room.
Should I just not even worry about it until year two?

I would get thru your first winter with the birds you have, you will learn a lot.
Think about how to add new chicks easily, I like to brood in coop 1 week after hatch then start integrating at 4wo. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/integrating-new-birds-at-4-weeks-old.72603/

 

[Lesjr883]

Just starting out here also. I have 17 ranging from 18 weeks old to 7 weeks old. I have not gotten an egg yet, but was already thinking about how to keep egg production going once they start. Everyone here has such great advise. Thank you all and it is great to be able to gather knowledge from people who know.

 

[TheAmundsons]

@kklowell thank you for starting this thread! I was wondering the same thing. Looks like we'll wait a little while to see how the first full year of chickens goes!

@aart you mentioned having light in the winter to help with production...I've read this elsewhere as well, and just had a thought. Our coop is built into the exterior wall of an old barn we have. Do you think if we just turn the light on in the barn, and let the, "free range" in the barn throughout the winter, that would help with production? Right now we let them free range for about 10 hours a day over our 10 acres, but I'm not sure how much they'll want to go out in the South Dakota snow all winter! Our run is not weather proofed, so there will be snow in there. We have a tarp we're thinking about putting over the top of the coop to prevent some of the snow from coming in, but it won't stop everything.

 

[jolenesdad]

I was taken aback by my first molt so it’s good to plan there. Next year you could add a few in early spring so they’re laying by molting time. My first set of chickens molted early starting in early July, but I had a few born in a February that year, that started laying in July too. This year your leghorns could very well lay through the molt or at least lay some through the molt. I would add just a small number next spring and get an idea what happens during molt with your girls while still having a few consistent eggs.

 

[coach723]

I'd love to have a hen hatch some eggs and raise some new members of the flock, but my wife is dead set against letting the rooster in with the girls. Why then do we have a rooster you ask? Well, it's because when my wife was a child her grandmother always had a rooster, so the crowing our guy does takes her back to her childhood.

If you decide to hatch, which is really fun to do and watch them grow up, have a plan for what you are going to do with extra cockerels, because you will end up with a fair amount of them. Rehoming can be difficult, so either a bachelor pad, or freezer camp are most common.

 

[Shadrach]

My flock consists of 11 birds that I got this past March, we're getting a half-dozen eggs per day on average now. The breeds are Golden Comets (4), White Leghorns (2), White Plymouth Rocks (2), RIR (2), and Silver-Laced Wyandotte (1). I'm thinking I should add another six chicks in the spring next year. That will, I expect, give me 17 hens laying by fall next year if I'm lucky enough to not get any males. But, I'm wondering if adding six birds a year is too often. My goal is to maintain a large enough flock to sell some eggs, but not so large that I'm constantly running out of coop/run room.
Should I just not even worry about it until year two?

I read a lot of posts about people getting new hens and chicks.
I very rarely read about any quarantine precautions.
For me, one of the benefits of having cocks is I don't have to worry about chickens from other places bringing in diseases I don't already have here. When I want more chickens I let a hen sit. Its worked quite well.

 

[aart]

@aart you mentioned having light in the winter to help with production...I've read this elsewhere as well, and just had a thought. Our coop is built into the exterior wall of an old barn we have. Do you think if we just turn the light on in the barn, and let the, "free range" in the barn throughout the winter, that would help with production? Right now we let them free range for about 10 hours a day over our 10 acres, but I'm not sure how much they'll want to go out in the South Dakota snow all winter! Our run is not weather proofed, so there will be snow in there. We have a tarp we're thinking about putting over the top of the coop to prevent some of the snow from coming in, but it won't stop everything.

You need enough white light at roost height for you(not the birds-haha) to read a newspaper. That's a general 'rule of thumb'. I have done several lighting schemes over my 5 winters, had varying results and read tons of others experiences, there's no hard and fast scenario. The most important aspect of lighting is consistency, why you must use a timer and they will need at least 12 hours of light, I go for about 14hrs, per 24 hour period.
Here's a pretty good article on supplemental lighting.

Tarp to keep snow off.....be careful that the tarp is well supported by something that can hold the snow load....and the melting snow load(water). Best to have a plan to remove snow(I use a homemade roof rake) and have it able to drain any melting snow/rain.

 

[BirdGirl2004]

Your chickens are

I hate the whole process of adding young ones in so... we divided our run in half and added another coop beside the other one . Now as the hens reach 2 years or so it’s time for chicks , that way one of the flocks are always laying well .

This is one run full.. the other one behind it has 9 week olds

your chickens are GORGEOUS!!

 

[Buckbuckgoose]

Hens tend to lay fairly well the first couple of years, so adding replacements every other year works well. However, this assumes you don't mind a break in production when the hens cease laying in order to molt. To maintain production, some folks make sure they have pullets coming into lay in late fall/early winter, which coincides with the older hens winding down to molt.

So do they thin out the flock as well when they bring in the new girls? If so, what does a person do with these hens?

 

[RodNTN]

I have around 45 chickens. During the span of one year, I usually lose a few chickens to disease, predators, or rehoming. So I typically add more pullets every spring, if I don't have any more space for new pullets I add more every 2 years or so.

But occasionally I'll catch chick fever and go on a hatching spree or something like that....