I am not all that experienced, opinions are all over the place as to whether to get pullets or chicks.
Chicks will have to be kept warm. 95 degrees to start, reducing the temperature by 5 degrees a week untill they are 8 weeks old. So they will have to be kept in a warm draft free place for a couple of months. In the spring and summer, and in Florida, you can cheat a little, but not in the winter where you live. Many people do make it work however.
Many people start the chicks in a large rubbermaid type tub in the house with a heat lamp or light bulb suspended above it for heat. You move the lamp farther away or reduce the wattage of the bulb to reduce the temperature. Position the heat lamp tword one end so the chicks have a choice of cooler to warmer within their little box. Use a thermometer to check the temperature. Feed medicated chick starter in a chick feeder and water in a chick waterer. Use PINE shavings for bedding. Cackle hatchery where I got my chicks had a care sheet on their website (most of the big hatcheries do). They tell you what to do when you have new chicks, how to set up a brooder, feed them etc. Read a couple of the hatchery how to's for starters. It realy isn't too hard to care for chicks.
This is the hard part...
At about four weeks they will start to need more room they will be driving you crazy-but they will still need MINIMUM teperatures of 75+ degrees. Not your outside temps. Depending on your coop you may be able to hang one or two heat lamps in a corner and give them a spot where it is that warm, or you may be able to put them with a heat lamp in a bigger box in the garage, laundry room or whatever until they are 8, 10, 12 weeks old whatever it takes to have them hardened off. I kept mine clean, changed the shavings once a week and there realy wasn't a problem with smell or anything. I did feel bad moving mine eventually outside to their unheated coop.
You will of course be handling them all the time, and they will have grown up with only each other and you so they should be pretty darn tame.
IF You get chicks at the fair FIND OUT HOW OLD THEY ARE and what kind of care you will need to provide. 2-4 month old ones (fully feathered ones) can go to the coop right away.
Try to get all 6 about the same age. Don't get 2- full grown, 2- 6weeks, and 2-day olds.
You'll have a nightmare on your hands trying to integrate them.
Started pullets will be able to go home to the coop. How tame they are will depend on their temperment and how they were raised. If you are lucky they might already be tame. Sometimes they are just tame by nature. You should be able to tame down a basicly gentle group if you spend the daily time with them to do so. I have seen battery hens that were real sweeties.
A point of lay hen is going to cost more.
Here chicks are 3-5 dollars, so 4 chicks is like 20 bucks. point of lay hens though are 25 dollars apeice. 100 smackers. Hard for me to do with DH standing there. Probably still a bargain in comparison to the chicks though when you figure feed, heat lamps, brooder box,etc., etc., etc.
You'll just have to go and see whats available. Shop around so to speak. Picking up something locally is probably best if you can find what you want. A lot of the big hatcheries ship year round, and usually have started pullets (sex links mostly) as well as chicks (all types).
Sorry this turned out to be a book. MY FIRST BOOK!!!
Signed copies available
