Oh RRIMom, I'm sorry to hear after all that you can't keep your chickens 
I hope you find someone reliable to care for them. Perhaps a neighbor?
My perspective is a little different, at least for the chick stage. Mine are still 4 weeks old, so I haven't gotten to the pullet stage quite yet. For all I know, one or two could still be a roo in disguise.
We ordered our chicks online due to very limited, if any, availability here in Seattle. Ours will literally be "backyard" chickens, at my mother's place, where she has a large backyard and the coop itself is nearly finished. We ordered the babies to arrive between Aug 12-15th because that would coincide with them hitting 4 weeks when the coop was finished, and still give us 4 weeks time if our plans fell behind. Also because my mother was on vacation Aug 1-9th.
Hopefully this doesn't happen often, but our hatchery screwed up and sent the chicks an entire week early. Due to this, they arrived at the post office a week earlier than expected, which not only caught them off guard, but also my mother was out of town -- the brooder wasn't yet set up, and her post office is an hour and a half away from me. Not to mention, I wasn't planning on picking up chicks so I wasn't even available to get them until after 10am. After the trip and the line at the post office, the trip back to stop at farm supply to get brooder equipment, they had been in their little box without food for almost 8hrs and that did not include the time they were being shipped. As a result, we lost two of our six chicks and another two nearly passed away. Thankfully, I am in the unique situation of living with an ornithologist who is dating an ER vet tech, so I had a lot of free help saving the remaining four. I also lucked out that our farm supply had gotten in a shipment of chicks only ~5days older than ours, of appropriate breeds, and we replaced the two that passed away.
Even after my mother returned from vacation we decided I should keep the chicks until they were of age to go outside, simply because she is employed and I am not, and boy do they need a lot of attention the first few weeks.
Without access to my mother's brooder, I decided to use an old reptile tank that has about 8 sq feet total for the babies. I used a mix of large and small white pine shavings for the bedding rather than sand. The chicks waterer was $5, their feeder another $5. I find that I need to top off the feeder every day and a half at the rate they eat (I clean it out at this time, but just an idea of how long it takes them to get through it). I use a corn and soy free chick starter feed that's relatively cheap. For six chicks to eat the starter until 8 weeks of age, they needed about ~20lbs. I bought a ten pound bag to begin with, and just had to buy another 10lbs. In the future, I would have just bought the 25lb version to say a little money, but the difference wasn't so bad. I find I have to change their water anywhere from 2x-4x a day (on bad days, more) even though that the water is raised to their chest height because they love to throw bedding in there as they begin to "forage", and occasionally manage to get poop in there as well. I clean out the cage fully every 2 days, with some pick-up happening in between. (Read: over the two days I pick out what I can when I see it too messy, and every other day I empty the bedding entirely and put new stuff down). Originally I bought a small bag of bedding to see how it worked for them. It lasted me hardly a week. I went back and bought a gigantic bag I could fit inside myself, and it should have plenty left over to fill the actual coop for a little while once they hit 8 weeks. I also got a 5lb bag of grit their first day and that still has plenty left over so far.
For heating, I already had a heatlamp left over from the lizard, that was good for up to 250w (if I'd had to buy it, it would have been $15). I bought a red 250w from my farm supply ($10), as the pet stores only carried up to 150w for lizards. I did some fancy rigging above the cage to get the height right, and used a lizard thermometer (free since I already had it, $4 from farm supply if I needed one) inside the tank to monitor the inside temp. We started at 95F on week one, and let them tell us by their behavior how much more or less they needed.
Here in Seattle at late August, it's still very warm and even humid during the day and chilly at night. I found at about 3 weeks they no longer needed the heat lamp during the day, only at dusk until late morning. They also began to roost. My setup seems rather unique, and I got a wooden tree-support pole that's more rough than smooth and works perfectly for a roost. So rather them sitting on the edge of the tank, I rigged it diagonally across the top of the tank and they quite enjoy roosting there during the day. I only replace the tank's screen lid at night when I can't keep an eye on them. They so far seem to have plenty of room between that and the tank itself, and I haven't had to separate them into two brooders (I don't have anything larger, and don't want to separate them unless I have to). I also found that, after the first two weeks are over, I could take a breath of relief -- they were hardier, staying awake longer and their appetites were huge, and they have begun to clean their wing feathers and other incoming feathers just fine. Pasty butt also is no longer an issue (I only had one that really had an issue with that), even though I still keep an eye out for it. I haven't had any problems with them getting poo stuck to their feet with this bedding, although unlike sand they can and will "forage" in their tanks, kicking up giant mounds of shavings to expose the glass floor of the tank. I solved that problem by taping (with medical tape) paper towels along the cage floor at the corners (they love to dig the corners the most) and putting bedding down over top of it (I use about an inch and a half depth on bedding these days).
All in all, the first two weeks were the most trying on my sanity, just because I was afraid to sleep most nights, god forbid I missed something (good or bad!). Especially the way they slept -- 20min of running around like fuzzy little torpedoes, and 20min of falling over mid-step asleep and looking like they spontaneously died (until you tap the tank, in which case six heads pop up like "WHAT? WE'RE TRYING TO SLEEP, HERE."
At four weeks, my kids have half-fuzz and half-feathers. Five of the six have full wing feathers, with our runt 6th still growing those in (but they are growing, every day!) They eat through about one feeder-full a day of feed, and I only have to change out the water twice a day to keep it clean.
Oh, I forgot to mention - before they roosted, I had a half-log in there still with bark on between the water and the food. It sat just half-under the heat lamp. They LOVED this thing, and would cuddle up on it every night to sleep. Even now, they still use it to sit on when not roosting every day. (again, free for me or if you can find an appropriate sized log to cut, or you can buy them from pet stores for lizards at about $10-$20).
So far my costs have been approx $50 for the first setup (bedding, feed, feeder/waterer, grit, and heat bulb) and a further $25 (more feed and bedding). So, in total, around $75 for 8 weeks of supplies, considering I had the tank, lamp, thermometer and an accessory already. Not bad!
We also take the chicks down to my mothers 2-3x a week starting at 3.5 weeks old (we'd go more often, but it's a 45min drive each way!), on sunny warm days, to run around in their future yard. They love to forage, and go nuts when the gnats buzz around, and do just fine for up to 5hrs (they go back in their carrier when they're cold and peep at us to let us know they're ready to go home
This seems to give them some much-needed exercise, and so far, everyone's happy and healthy. So for $75-$100 for six chicks to get from infants to pullets, totally worth it. Especially with all the cuteness and curiosity we get in return (and, come spring, some eggs!)
I think it's really cool to see everyone posting their experience! It gives people cool ideas for when they get their first or next batch, so I hope others post theirs. Overall, mine was very positive, even if the first week or two I was half-way to a panic attack most days
I hope you find someone reliable to care for them. Perhaps a neighbor?My perspective is a little different, at least for the chick stage. Mine are still 4 weeks old, so I haven't gotten to the pullet stage quite yet. For all I know, one or two could still be a roo in disguise.
We ordered our chicks online due to very limited, if any, availability here in Seattle. Ours will literally be "backyard" chickens, at my mother's place, where she has a large backyard and the coop itself is nearly finished. We ordered the babies to arrive between Aug 12-15th because that would coincide with them hitting 4 weeks when the coop was finished, and still give us 4 weeks time if our plans fell behind. Also because my mother was on vacation Aug 1-9th.
Hopefully this doesn't happen often, but our hatchery screwed up and sent the chicks an entire week early. Due to this, they arrived at the post office a week earlier than expected, which not only caught them off guard, but also my mother was out of town -- the brooder wasn't yet set up, and her post office is an hour and a half away from me. Not to mention, I wasn't planning on picking up chicks so I wasn't even available to get them until after 10am. After the trip and the line at the post office, the trip back to stop at farm supply to get brooder equipment, they had been in their little box without food for almost 8hrs and that did not include the time they were being shipped. As a result, we lost two of our six chicks and another two nearly passed away. Thankfully, I am in the unique situation of living with an ornithologist who is dating an ER vet tech, so I had a lot of free help saving the remaining four. I also lucked out that our farm supply had gotten in a shipment of chicks only ~5days older than ours, of appropriate breeds, and we replaced the two that passed away.
Even after my mother returned from vacation we decided I should keep the chicks until they were of age to go outside, simply because she is employed and I am not, and boy do they need a lot of attention the first few weeks.
Without access to my mother's brooder, I decided to use an old reptile tank that has about 8 sq feet total for the babies. I used a mix of large and small white pine shavings for the bedding rather than sand. The chicks waterer was $5, their feeder another $5. I find that I need to top off the feeder every day and a half at the rate they eat (I clean it out at this time, but just an idea of how long it takes them to get through it). I use a corn and soy free chick starter feed that's relatively cheap. For six chicks to eat the starter until 8 weeks of age, they needed about ~20lbs. I bought a ten pound bag to begin with, and just had to buy another 10lbs. In the future, I would have just bought the 25lb version to say a little money, but the difference wasn't so bad. I find I have to change their water anywhere from 2x-4x a day (on bad days, more) even though that the water is raised to their chest height because they love to throw bedding in there as they begin to "forage", and occasionally manage to get poop in there as well. I clean out the cage fully every 2 days, with some pick-up happening in between. (Read: over the two days I pick out what I can when I see it too messy, and every other day I empty the bedding entirely and put new stuff down). Originally I bought a small bag of bedding to see how it worked for them. It lasted me hardly a week. I went back and bought a gigantic bag I could fit inside myself, and it should have plenty left over to fill the actual coop for a little while once they hit 8 weeks. I also got a 5lb bag of grit their first day and that still has plenty left over so far.
For heating, I already had a heatlamp left over from the lizard, that was good for up to 250w (if I'd had to buy it, it would have been $15). I bought a red 250w from my farm supply ($10), as the pet stores only carried up to 150w for lizards. I did some fancy rigging above the cage to get the height right, and used a lizard thermometer (free since I already had it, $4 from farm supply if I needed one) inside the tank to monitor the inside temp. We started at 95F on week one, and let them tell us by their behavior how much more or less they needed.
Here in Seattle at late August, it's still very warm and even humid during the day and chilly at night. I found at about 3 weeks they no longer needed the heat lamp during the day, only at dusk until late morning. They also began to roost. My setup seems rather unique, and I got a wooden tree-support pole that's more rough than smooth and works perfectly for a roost. So rather them sitting on the edge of the tank, I rigged it diagonally across the top of the tank and they quite enjoy roosting there during the day. I only replace the tank's screen lid at night when I can't keep an eye on them. They so far seem to have plenty of room between that and the tank itself, and I haven't had to separate them into two brooders (I don't have anything larger, and don't want to separate them unless I have to). I also found that, after the first two weeks are over, I could take a breath of relief -- they were hardier, staying awake longer and their appetites were huge, and they have begun to clean their wing feathers and other incoming feathers just fine. Pasty butt also is no longer an issue (I only had one that really had an issue with that), even though I still keep an eye out for it. I haven't had any problems with them getting poo stuck to their feet with this bedding, although unlike sand they can and will "forage" in their tanks, kicking up giant mounds of shavings to expose the glass floor of the tank. I solved that problem by taping (with medical tape) paper towels along the cage floor at the corners (they love to dig the corners the most) and putting bedding down over top of it (I use about an inch and a half depth on bedding these days).
All in all, the first two weeks were the most trying on my sanity, just because I was afraid to sleep most nights, god forbid I missed something (good or bad!). Especially the way they slept -- 20min of running around like fuzzy little torpedoes, and 20min of falling over mid-step asleep and looking like they spontaneously died (until you tap the tank, in which case six heads pop up like "WHAT? WE'RE TRYING TO SLEEP, HERE."
At four weeks, my kids have half-fuzz and half-feathers. Five of the six have full wing feathers, with our runt 6th still growing those in (but they are growing, every day!) They eat through about one feeder-full a day of feed, and I only have to change out the water twice a day to keep it clean.
Oh, I forgot to mention - before they roosted, I had a half-log in there still with bark on between the water and the food. It sat just half-under the heat lamp. They LOVED this thing, and would cuddle up on it every night to sleep. Even now, they still use it to sit on when not roosting every day. (again, free for me or if you can find an appropriate sized log to cut, or you can buy them from pet stores for lizards at about $10-$20).
So far my costs have been approx $50 for the first setup (bedding, feed, feeder/waterer, grit, and heat bulb) and a further $25 (more feed and bedding). So, in total, around $75 for 8 weeks of supplies, considering I had the tank, lamp, thermometer and an accessory already. Not bad!
We also take the chicks down to my mothers 2-3x a week starting at 3.5 weeks old (we'd go more often, but it's a 45min drive each way!), on sunny warm days, to run around in their future yard. They love to forage, and go nuts when the gnats buzz around, and do just fine for up to 5hrs (they go back in their carrier when they're cold and peep at us to let us know they're ready to go home
This seems to give them some much-needed exercise, and so far, everyone's happy and healthy. So for $75-$100 for six chicks to get from infants to pullets, totally worth it. Especially with all the cuteness and curiosity we get in return (and, come spring, some eggs!)I think it's really cool to see everyone posting their experience! It gives people cool ideas for when they get their first or next batch, so I hope others post theirs. Overall, mine was very positive, even if the first week or two I was half-way to a panic attack most days
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