When to get new chickens?

[aart]

This is what I'm hoping to aim for.. do your new birds keep laying through winter while the older ones moult?

Usually, yes...but I do use some supplemental lighting, I turn it up after the olders are done molting.

 

[Tired old Rooster]

I was so stressed out by pecking order antics the first time round, I'm actually not looking forward to new chickens! But right now, I'm at that point where I don't have quite enough eggs to stop buying them, yet almost enough eggs to stop buying them - first world problems
So I would like to get a couple more to help beef up/ sustain the production.

You are in the same boat I am. I have three pullets, only one is laying. I can accommodate a total of six, with eight at a stretch, plus my cockerel in my new setup. It would be a huge waste to go for less, given what I have put into all of this. I plan on getting four new pullets, to account for likely loss of one. So, the likely end, is that I will go from just an egg less a week than I need, to more eggs than I know what to do with.

Six pullets will eventually give 42 a week, if the first one is anything to go by. She is laying daily, in the worst part of winter.

 

[Tired old Rooster]

I got my chooks in late Autumn which was one of the worst things to have done. It was absolutely freezing even though I'm in South Africa. I'd get them in Spring if I were you.

Where do you live? Up in the high veld? As a kid, we lived on a plot near Meyerton in a town called De Deur and even spring was a dodgy affair. We got out first lamb from our flock, in spring. She was adorable and a week later she was a popsicle one morning.

Once, in the late September, Dad went off to work on a blissful sunny spring day, in his safari suit. At ten in the morning our principal cancelled school because it was snowing. Good thing that Dad was like a polar bear, because a safari suit is not suitable for snow.

 

[Red Mangrove]

Is fall a more relaxed time because they are taking a break from laying?

Production goes down for most breeds as the weather gets cold. My hens usually have favorite laying spots and not having to deal with such things would make for a nice introduction

 

[rosemarythyme]

When you stagger the new additions by 2 years, do you find you go without eggs for the first winter when there are no new pullets laying?
I'd like to keep my flock small so I'm happy to wait two years before adding if I can, but I've went 4 months without eggs this autumn/winter. I enjoy my hens as they are, but it's hard to sustain children's interest when there are no eggs.

Because my chicks are May babies I generally get pullets starting to lay some time in winter, though I've had everything from late fall to late winter onset so there's really no guarantee of anything.

I actually don't eat that many eggs, so spring and summer are overloaded for me even with reduced production from my flock (my flock is now 3, 5 & 7 yrs as we skipped adding last year because I simply can't use up all the eggs and we're also close to capacity in the coop unless some birds pass on). So I'm already slowing egg usage at this point to prepare for fall and winter. Last year I did not have to buy any eggs at all because I saved up about 7 dozen which was enough to last through the entire winter.

 

[QODTMWTD]

We bought our first batch of day-old chicks at the end of August. The second batch came in the first week of March. The timing for both groups worked out well; we picked those times randomly when the urge for chickens struck. I wouldn't add new chicks in cold weather, though, which around here is December, January, and February. Otherwise as long as they're fully feathered by December or arrive after February they're good to go in our climate (east Texas).