Order chicks in December a good idea?

[hanneke]

I finally have an acreage again and am excited to order baby chicks.
However I’m not sure it’s a good idea.
I’m in Eastern Washington and it’s in the teens at night and there’s snow on the ground. Probably in the 20’s ish during the day.
This will be continuing into March or so. February for sure.
Should I wait until spring? I am looking at cold and heat hardy breeds (it gets 100F in Sumer too)

Please give me some tips and thoughts.
Ive had chickens before but I don’t want to complicate things too much.

Edit. The first weeks inside I’m not worried. We have a back up generator and wood burning stove. I’m more worried about the transfer to outside.


Very much appreciated.

 

[I Love Feather Babies]

I finally have an acreage again and am excited to order baby chicks.
However I’m not sure it’s a good idea.
I’m in Eastern Washington and it’s in the teens at night and there’s snow on the ground. Probably in the 20’s ish during the day.
This will be continuing into March or so. February for sure.
Should I wait until spring? I am looking at cold and heat hardy breeds (it gets 100F in Sumer too)

Please give me some tips and thoughts.
Ive had chickens before but I don’t want to complicate things too much.

Very much appreciated.

I think you should wait till spring. Will be a challenge to keep the warm. If the power were to go out, you’d probably lose them. Someone else may offer different advice. Where I live, we hardly get snow and winters are rainy with temperatures between 20-30 a night and 40-50 during day

 

[Ridgerunner]

First there is shipping. A lot of chicks get ordered in winter and delivered fine, but all it takes is a blizzard or ice storm wherever the plane is flying or a driver is driving to cost you a day in delivery. A mistake in handling can leave them exposed to the elements. The risk in a shipping delay or exposure is always present, any time of the year, but it is worse in winter. That's even if you go pick them up at the hatchery yourself.

Where would you brood them? In northwest Arkansas I brooded mine in the coop in temperatures warmer than but below freezing but you could manage. Even if you brood in your house an extended power outage could be disastrous. Maybe you have an emergency generator set up to immediately come on but power outages are more likely in the middle of winter than other times of the year.

Once they are fully feathered out they should be able to handle your winters with proper housing. That part would not stop me.

To me those are the two big risks, shipping and power outages. I don't know how late in the spring you'd have to go to minimize those. Spring weather can be unsettled.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Im just thinking about the transfer to outdoors mostly.

That's under your control. I don't know your set-up or methods for that so I can't comment.

 

[WI chickens]

My thoughts are, I wouldn't deal with all the cold weather issues if I didn't have to.

 

[21hens-incharge]

There is a much higher live delivery rate in spring.

I would wait. It's only a couple months.

 

[Ruthster55]

Wait and time your order for March. Don't try to do anything in January or February. There is too much chance of a weeks-long hard freeze, cold snap, blizzard, etc..

In early March, make sure you have plenty of lumber on hand for the wood stove and some fuel on hand for the generator, as well as having your brooder setup ready.

Between now and March, select the breeds you want (along with ordering garden seeds).

 

[WI chickens]

I would wait.

 

[Iluveggers]

I would wait, too. Last year we put in a June order in JANUARY. It was a long & suspenseful wait, but well worth it as everyone arrived to NY healthy!

 

[hanneke]

First there is shipping. A lot of chicks get ordered in winter and delivered fine, but all it takes is a blizzard or ice storm wherever the plane is flying or a driver is driving to cost you a day in delivery. A mistake in handling can leave them exposed to the elements. The risk in a shipping delay or exposure is always present, any time of the year, but it is worse in winter. That's even if you go pick them up at the hatchery yourself.

Where would you brood them? In northwest Arkansas I brooded mine in the coop in temperatures warmer than but below freezing but you could manage. Even if you brood in your house an extended power outage could be disastrous. Maybe you have an emergency generator set up to immediately come on but power outages are more likely in the middle of winter than other times of the year.

Once they are fully feathered out they should be able to handle your winters with proper housing. That part would not stop me.

To me those are the two big risks, shipping and power outages. I don't know how late in the spring you'd have to go to minimize those. Spring weather can be unsettled.

The first weeks in my house I’m not worried about. I do have electrical heat but even if that fails we have a woodburning stove where they could stay warm. Plus our electrical is buried so power outages are rare and we also have a back up generator.
Im just thinking about the transfer to outdoors mostly.