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.

 

[WI chickens]

I would wait.

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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!

 

[springvalley123]

I'd wait too, but I've had mail-order chicks this time of year twice and it went OK. Yes I live "near" phoenix AZ but the temps at the time ranged from 10 degrees F, some days had a HIGH of below freezing, etc. so I had a couple of winters with temps probably comparable to yours.

Do your pipes freeze? If so, make sure you are aware how much power the heat tape uses. I had the fuse trip and it was nearly an hour before I realized the heat tape took out the power to the heat lamp (I brooded them in the shed once they were about 2 weeks old). No harm done though.

Mainly just make sure that as you brood, you know how to tell if a fuse has tripped to make sure your chicks' heat source is still working.

I took them from indoor bathtub to shed when they were 2 weeks. No where near fully feathered, especially critical areas like body, head, neck. So I erred on the side of caution with plenty of heat lamps/plates. they could get away from the heat, I had a 6 x 8 foot area in the shed for them. I'd use multiple lamps or heat plates so if one fails, at that age, they know to walk across the brooding area to the backup heat plate. A temperature sensor like a weather station you can monitor from the house helps too, to detect a failure or some situation early.

I erred on the side of giving them more heat than they needed. They can walk away from the heat. I didn't lose any, but probably wasted some electricity. I did a very gradual transition to outside once they were all fully feathered and starting to molt. I still provided heat, just not as much. Plus I "insulated" the coop to provide more draft protection and ease teh transition . The thing is to do a gradual transition off the heat-- you're going from 95 degrees to room temp to freezing, and that takes time no matter if they're fully feathered.

Best of luck whatever you decide!