Raising Chickens to Hens for the first time! (Maryland)

[Living_Legend]

Hello,

I am new here. I am planning on raising 4 one day old chicks into hens for eggs. I have done a lot of research but I have a few questions I can not find clear answers for. My question is all about timing. I will brooder the chickens in my basement home until I can take them outside and put them in the coop.

When do I start this process in Maryland? Meaning when is it safe to take them outside where they can handle any temperature? I read that Week 5 as long as the temperature does not fall below 60..... Is there a week like 6, 7, or 8 that it no longer matters? I will also be getting a bread that can handle Maryland weather all year when adults.

What I am getting at is if I want to put the chickens outside in the coop on April 1st (avg 40-60 deg) and they need to be 8 weeks old then my start date is February 4th.

Thanks for your help,
Mike

Maryland
April Average 45-70 degrees
May Average 55-80 degrees

 

[Abriana]

When they are fully feathered put them out. You can take them out for short playtime in the yard to help them get used to the weather. They should definitely be fine in the weather temperatures you posted above. Welcome to byc!!

 

[Blooie]

I'm too lazy to go through all that indoor brooding stuff, worrying about when to put them out, worrying about why they are afraid of the dark, worrying about them adjusting to being outside......worrying worrying worrying.

So after going through all that the first time with my first batch of chicks, I cut the in-between-stuff out, got (or incubator hatched) the chicks, and raised them outdoors in a wire pen in the run with a heating pad cave. No heat lamp. Every batch, every time. They thrived! Spring chick season for the rest of the country means we are still experiencing temps in the twenties, dropping down into the teens sometimes, with sideways blowing snow. One year our last snowfall was June 6th. Yeah.

 

[lazy gardener]

I'm in Baltimore County near Maryland PA line. I looked at these solar activated doors. Do chickens ever get accidently locked out at night if they dont come inside before the door shuts? I never owned chickens. Doing all the research now.

Yes, they do get accidentally locked out OR IN. Also, the electric doors can have glitches. Mine occasionally binds up in the track. So, I check it every night that I am home just to be sure. It is on a timer, and I have to keep the timer adjusted to match day length.

so they dont need to eat or drink water from 5:30pm to 7am? (with food and water in run)

When they go to roost, they stay put for the night.

Since you have a busy home, it's even more important that you have a set up that is convenient: I strongly suggest that you build a walk in coop. Stay away from the cute little doll house coops. They always falsely advertise how many birds they will hold, and they are poorly constructed, not meeting the needs of the flock or the flock keeper. Your birds will need at least 4 s.f. in coop and 10 s.f. in run per bird. Lots of ventilation: 1 s.f./bird or 10% of floor space. Deep litter is the easiest to manage. I recommend a walk in coop, minimum size 4 x 8, no matter how few birds you have. Lots of natural lighting. Outside access to nest boxes will allow you to collect eggs frequently without soiling your shoes.

 

[Blooie]

They don't see well in the dark, and when the sun goes down so do their eyelids. That's why after they've been roosting for awhile is the best time to catch them if you have do something with them. I put a threadbare blue washcloth over the end of a flashlight, securing it with a rubber band, and it gave me enough light to see but not enough to wake up my sleeping beauties.

So they don't eat or drink once they roost - and many of us feel that food and water in the coop entices rodents into the coop. Like most, I kept chickens' food and water out in the run. But I had an extremely secure run, so I never closed the pop door between the run and coop, ever. They could come in and go out at will and didn't have to wait for me to get up, go out and open the door to the run.

 

[Folly's place]

Welcome! If your run is predator proof, as your coop must be, they can be in the run/ coop all the time, and don't need to be locked in the coop at night.
If your coop is safe, and your run is 'semi-safe', then lock them in every night!
Mary

 

[Blooie]

For an idea, you can click on the "My Coop" link under my intelligent looking, amazingly gorgeous avatar - hey, I call 'em as I see 'em and take 'em as I get 'em!

Then go to the "Coops" forum of BYC, click on the size you think will best suit your needs, and peruse....oh, and bring coffee - you're gonna need that and a hand towel to occasionally wipe the drool off your keyboard!!

 

[featheredplanets]

Different breeds feather fully at different times. They have enough/the feathers they need to be weaned off heat at three weeks old. No idea on Maryland weather but if it’s cold you might want to brood them until they’re four weeks, wean them off heat and keep them inside until they’re five weeks, then put them outside. As long as the coop is safe, draft free, adequate ventilation, correct roosts, they’ll be a-okay, there would be no reason to keep them inside on heat any longer. They don’t need to be eight weeks old to move into the coop

During this time you might want to take them outside for a few hours a day so they can start acclimatising and learn what the outside is and what it offers. Good luck

 

[lazy gardener]

That coop will hold 6 birds.

If you are looking at spending that much money, I suggest that you consider a shed building from Lowes or Home Depot, or consider having your coop built by a local person. Contact your local tech school for a recommendation for someone who could build for you.

 

[bruceha2000]

I will chime in with my opinions:

1. Don't build a raised coop, build one you can walk into as @lazy gardener suggested some pages back. It is easier to build, easier to maintain and there will be more head room for higher roosts. All mine roost at 4'. You have plenty of land, no need to use space under the coop for additional run space. And since you do have that space, I would make the building big enough to have weatherproof storage for feed, oyster shell, treats. Lots nicer than having to carry it down from the house daily or worry about critters getting into it. I keep my feed in 10 gallon metal cans with lids and bails. 1 can holds a 50# bag of feed.
2. I have a pullet shut auto door (https://chickendoors.com/) which uses a photo cell to determine when the door should open and close based on light from the sun coming up and going down. The hens have decided it is time to roost before the door "decides" it is dark. No need to change a timer as the hours of daylight change or the ^&*! daylight "saving" time changes happen.
3. Since you want to be able to leave them for a weekend, make sure the run is predator proof covered as well as predator proof sides and skirting. Nasties like coons and possums do NOT only come around after dark.
4. When you read the word "staples" it does NOT mean staple gun type staples, it means fence/poultry staples. A U shaped double pointed NAIL. You can use a staple gun to position the 1/2" hardware cloth (which will cover ALL openings but the pop door opening) prior to using poultry staples. They are a bear to get out once you've pounded them in. 2 other methods of attaching hardware cloth are wood strips or screws with fender washers (this gets expensive).
5. My coop is a converted horse stall in an old barn. It has a dirt floor. I have 1/2" hardware cloth covering the floor and rubber horse mats on top of the HW cloth. One value of this setup is there is no need to figure out how to waterproof the floor as would be needed with a wood floor. I don't use true deep litter (which is more like a compost pile than anything else) but have several inches of pine shavings on the mats. I rake through it under the roosts every morning, change it maybe once a year by raking it out into the barn alley (also dirt floor).
6. Order the chicks to come the end of April (in your area).
7. Other than the first couple of days, brood them out in the coop you finished before the chicks arrived. Chicks do NOT need to be fully feathered to go outside, they need to be fully feathered to go outside WITHOUT supplemental heat. Since you have no other chickens yet, there isn't even a reason to create a brooder space for them in the coop (that can be done when you get more chicks in a couple of years). Give them the full coop. It will be less stressful on them than dumping them out there when they are fully feathered at 4+ weeks.
8. Just say NO to heat lamps and read through @Blooie's MHP brooder thread then make yourself one. It is easy and as close to natural as a human can get. https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...d-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update.956958/ Biggest benefits: Natural day/night cycles. Ability to go to the heat when they want it and get away from it when they don't need it. Look at the pictures below and understand that the whole "chicks need 24x7 95°F for a week, then 90°F for a week ..." is pure BS. No hen provides an ambient temp for the chicks except under her wings.
9. When you look at chicken breeds, pay attention to the GENERAL broodiness of each one you are interested in. Without a rooster, or without a desire to hatch eggs, a broody hen is a PITA. Those eggs you want? A hen that has gone broody won't lay any until you break her and then it might be 5-7 days before she starts up again. Of course even breeds that are supposed to be non broody can be. One of my 2012 Black Australorps (not normally a real broody breed like the Orpingtons for example) raised the 2015 and eventually the 2017 chicks. She goes broody a couple of times a year.
10. Also pay attention to the lay rate. If you want eggs, skip the poor laying breeds no matter how pretty they are.
11. A mixed flock? Yep, look at my signature I like that I can tell the birds apart and I like the visual variety. It also helps to be able to tell which birds are laying since the eggs will be somewhat different colors and sizes. I do have colored leg bands on them so members of the family can tell them apart. I spend enough time with them that I know all 17 by sight and most of them by "voice".
12. I do not get my birds from a local farm store. Sure they probably come in sexed but plenty of places aren't real careful to make sure they stay in their sexed pens. People pick them up and put them down but not necessarily where they were originally. Might not even be put back in the right breed pen. Even mail order hatcheries only guarantee 90% accuracy. I got 12 girls in 2012, 7 in 2015 and 6 plus a Barnevelder cockerel in 2017. Meyer did make good on the purchase price of the cockerel, but I still had an unwanted male.

I'm sure there are many things I forgot but for now I will show a couple of examples of why it is PERFECTLY FINE to have young birds outside before they are fully feathered because they have that "supplemental heat" accessible 24x7.

Zorra June 12, 2015 - chicks 4 days old. The historical average temp for this day is 75°/45°, the barn is NOT heated. See those chicks NOT under their heat???


Chicks 12 days old, again not hiding under the heat


Zorra was not interested in the 2017 chicks until they were 3 weeks old so they raised themselves with a MHP cave. When she did take an interest it was not as a heater but a
"mentor" and protector. Somehow I managed to take no pictures from the day after they arrived until they were a month old!

Here they are in the brooder area in the coop with their MHP cave at 1 month:


And note the temperature in the barn at that time. OMG they should have 80°F temps 24x7 at that age, they are gonna DIE :


Here they are outside, they took themselves there by 2 weeks old before Zorra was interested in them (they are a month old here):


And note that the Exchequer Leghorns were slow to feather out compared to some of the others: