With 9 roosters in my flock, I will need to suppplement my 3 girls with either some. ready to lays. or new chicks. I was wondering what is my best bet. 1) new chicks- i can add them right into the coop in a seregated brooder but they will be ready to lay in december. if i want them to lay i will have to supplement with artficial light which might be hard on our small solar system. 2) ready to lay- would get from local farmer so not debeaked. woud hve to build temp coop to quarantine? Would restock wih new chcks come spring? Any comments/recommendations.
I would say ready to lay.... I'm new at chickens but my thinking is this: your main reason for more chickens is to give your 3 girls a relief from all those roos. You would only need to wait out quarantine for that. With day olds you'd be waiting 6 months or so! Plus you would have the hassle of winter. If it were me, I'd get the ready to lay hens. That way come spring, if you wanted chicks, you might get them naturally without having to buy them! just my 2 cents.
Yes all the roosters are in with the hens. so far the roosters are leaving them alone in fact they seem to take turns guarding the girls while they sun themselves. I will be doing a cull of the flock once they get bigger. they are 12 weeks now so i figure another month or so thanks. I guess i better get cracking on a temp coop and run.
Yeah I would get ready to lay. I did the chick thing once, and well lets just say I am a fan of hens taking care of their own chicks.
