I'm in MA and will be getting 10-20 chicks this year. I can keep them in the basement until they smell, then they will move to an unheated coop outside. I'd like to get them as soon as possible, but don't want to get stuck with having to keep them in the house due to the cold outside. When should I order them?
that would depend mostly on the climate where you live. do you live somewhere cold, hot, or is it like here, where you never know what the weather will be like day to day?
Also are you planning on getting "meaties" (Cornish x's) I understand they get smelly a lot faster that the dual purpose birds like Rhode Island Reds
Good question. Wondering that myself. As far as keeping them in the basement and stinking...when do they start to stink? If you keep their area clean does that help? Is it just the poop factor?
i just started raising chickens. I ordered BR's and RIR's and got them on Nov. 4. I live in Indiana. I wanted to get them so they would be laying over the summer. I kept my chicks in my garage for the first 5 weeks then moved them to their coop. I ran a cord to the coop and had one heat lamp in there for the real cold times. They did start stinking in the garage but it wasn't horrible. I'd cleaned their box each week and that seemed to keep the stink down. I had 12 BR and 7 RIR in the box with pine shavings as the base.
Can you put a heat lamp out in the coop? I live in TN. I ordered mine in February to arrive in May. They stayed in the house for a month before the night time temps were high enough for me to let them stay out. As long as you keep shavings down and clean out the brooder daily there isn't too much smell. The bigger problem is dust. They do start kicking up some dust as they get bigger! Ordering early is always a good idea as the hatcheries sometimes run out later in the spring. What kind are you getting?
well, ours are in the living room at the moment, so we clean out their box every other day, or every day if they are stinking more than usual, and so far the smell isn't that bad. in fact, most people who come over don't realize that they are there until we point them out. they just look around trying to figure out where the cuckoo clock that keeps peeping is.
Even the cornish x wouldn't smell that bad if you could keep up with the waste! They make as much in 8 weeks as a standard does from day one till point of lay! If you can keep them warm outside, go ahead and brood in your coop.
