New to hatching eggs

[Debbie292d]

I'd start them in the garage if at all possible. They make MOUNTAINS of dander, and it is horrible for anyone who even thinks of having allergies, gets everywhere in the house and is very hard to clean. The Articles in the Learning Center also have great info on incubating and brooding, and good pictures, etc.

Very good advice about our Learning Center. Here's the link to it. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/categories/learning-center.11/

 

[FunClucks]

Thank you so much for your reply! Very helpful information, mine would be coming from just over two hours away so I’m hoping in that shorter transport things go ok lol!

I do have a coop, I already have chickens! It’s 8x10 and I only have 9 chickens so have space for more. I have copper marans and silverudds and a few mixes. D’uccles look lovely but this hatchery does not have them, they do have buff orpingtons! I’ve heard great things. I am planning to get legbars as I lost the one I had and loved her. I was also considering Swedish flower hens, mosaics, Hmong and maybe another marans or two. I do only want one or two more marans as I have a few already but one of my marans is definitely not a pure marans as she lays olive eggs!

Not the question you asked, but I've had trouble with this myself, so I'm going to address it. If you have an 8'x10' coop and 9 chickens, that means you have just under 8 sq ft per chicken in the coop. You don't state how much room you have in the run, but here's the rule of thumb most folks on here will share: The minimum recommendation on here is 4 sq ft per chicken in the coop and 10 sq feet in the run, with at least 1 ft length of roost in the coop per chicken. However, for larger standard size chickens, aggressive chickens, or production chickens that want to be bullies, this may not be enough room. It depends on your individual flock and their personalities.

I keep my chickens confined in a covered run at 15 sq feet per chicken (roughly 4 sq ft per coop + 10 sq ft per run = ~15 sq ft), but have had to rehome some flock members that were still feather picking and bullying the others pretty badly (it always seems to be my best layers who do this!), and the common solutions (run clutter, pinless peepers, etc) didn't help. I found that for my particular flock, the chickens are happier at 20 sq ft per chicken, and I have to be careful to rehome any bullies, or by the time winter ends I'll have severe damage from feather picking over most of the flock. Somehow it's always worse in the winter. And then of course you have to account for rooster damage, so I have chicken saddles on them already, so the feather pickers go for the head and neck feathers, and the bits of wing that are not covered.

All that to say, I'd think very carefully about how many chickens you actually end up adding, and what time of year you do it. I often tend to want to keep more than my coop can comfortably hold, so I thought I'd share the challenges that have come my way from doing that. And you can get a good price for laying hens at point of lay, so that's also a good option for the hens that don't quite make the cut.

 

[Debbie292d]

Thank you, that is all really helpful! I do definitely need the tips on brooding as well. Would it make sense to keep them inside for the first week or so when very very small and then move them out? I do have a heated garage that would work well. I got my first group of chickens when they were between 5-8 weeks of age and kept them in there.

I am in a climate that gets very cold so was planning to wait until closer to Spring, figuring it would be spring temperatures by the time they could move outside to join the group.

I'm in the same type of climate, I think (Wisconsin). It can get down further than -30F, not counting wind chill, but usually it's around 15-20F most of the time.

Our coop is heated to 40F and wired, so I could move a brooder out there (we have two DYI-built wired brooders), but I won't because in the first couple of weeks, I need to keep an eye on them myself.

This is why I won't hatch chicks in the fall...except, I'm hatching chicks in the fall. I had no choice as a couple of days ago I landed 14 exhibition quality eggs from a breeder who has doubts about their fertility, so they are in my incubator to find out-- 20 days to go.

If any hatch, they will stay in the house in a brooder for at least 2-3 weeks. Then I'll probably move them to a temp coop with a radiant panel heater (Cozy Coop). If December/January hits with any of the -35F or blizzards, we'll have to move them to the garage or bring them back into the house as they will be too young to join a coop, if even for a few days or weeks until it passes. The rest of the chickens will be fine in their coops.

Again, if dust is going to be an issue, try the horse bedding pellets, as there isn't any dust with those, and it dries their poop, so coccidiosis chances are way less.

 

[Ilovechickens2525]

Not the question you asked, but I've had trouble with this myself, so I'm going to address it. If you have an 8'x10' coop and 9 chickens, that means you have just under 8 sq ft per chicken in the coop. You don't state how much room you have in the run, but here's the rule of thumb most folks on here will share: The minimum recommendation on here is 4 sq ft per chicken in the coop and 10 sq feet in the run, with at least 1 ft length of roost in the coop per chicken. However, for larger standard size chickens, aggressive chickens, or production chickens that want to be bullies, this may not be enough room. It depends on your individual flock and their personalities.

I keep my chickens confined in a covered run at 15 sq feet per chicken (roughly 4 sq ft per coop + 10 sq ft per run = ~15 sq ft), but have had to rehome some flock members that were still feather picking and bullying the others pretty badly (it always seems to be my best layers who do this!), and the common solutions (run clutter, pinless peepers, etc) didn't help. I found that for my particular flock, the chickens are happier at 20 sq ft per chicken, and I have to be careful to rehome any bullies, or by the time winter ends I'll have severe damage from feather picking over most of the flock. Somehow it's always worse in the winter. And then of course you have to account for rooster damage, so I have chicken saddles on them already, so the feather pickers go for the head and neck feathers, and the bits of wing that are not covered.

All that to say, I'd think very carefully about how many chickens you actually end up adding, and what time of year you do it. I often tend to want to keep more than my coop can comfortably hold, so I thought I'd share the challenges that have come my way from doing that. And you can get a good price for laying hens at point of lay, so that's also a good option for the hens that don't quite make the cut.

Yes that is all very important to consider! I am only hoping to add maybe 6 more, which will still leave more than 4 sq ft per chicken! I currently have 4 roosts in the coop and only 1.5 of the roosts are being used! Thinking with these new additions it’ll give some company on the lesser used roost hopefully!

I will rehome the roosters, I have friends with quite large chicken operations who are always happy to add! So I will not end up keeping quite as many as I hatch!

I will not hatch until closer to spring so they will be introduced when it’s nicer out in the run, I’m not sure of our run square footage but it’s quite large. More than 4/5 times the size of the coop.

 

[Ilovechickens2525]

I'm in the same type of climate, I think (Wisconsin). It can get down further than -30F, not counting wind chill, but usually it's around 15-20F most of the time.

Our coop is heated to 40F and wired, so I could move a brooder out there (we have two DYI-built wired brooders), but I won't because in the first couple of weeks, I need to keep an eye on them myself.

This is why I won't hatch chicks in the fall...except, I'm hatching chicks in the fall. I had no choice as a couple of days ago I landed 14 exhibition quality eggs from a breeder who has doubts about their fertility, so they are in my incubator to find out-- 20 days to go.

If any hatch, they will stay in the house in a brooder for at least 2-3 weeks. Then I'll probably move them to a temp coop with a radiant panel heater (Cozy Coop). If December/January hits with any of the -35F or blizzards, we'll have to move them to the garage or bring them back into the house as they will be too young to join a coop, if even for a few days or weeks until it passes. The rest of the chickens will be fine in their coops.

Again, if dust is going to be an issue, try the horse bedding pellets, as there isn't any dust with those, and it dries their poop, so coccidiosis chances are way less.

This is my first winter with raising chickens myself (I got my current flock in the spring, did grow up with chickens but not quite the same as caring for them myself lol). I have a thermo chicken heated pad, it’s a wall heater. Will this do for the winter? We do get down to -45 in the winter. Our colder months are usually even a bit colder than your temps! We are just northwest of you, in Manitoba. I will not be hatching until closer to spring! Just trying to plan my spring preorder now

I will look into the horse pellet suggestion. We don’t have dust allergies luckily but always good to keep things clean!

Can I ask how coccidiosis forms? I’ve never had any diseases in my flock but of course want to be aware so it hopefully stays that way!

 

[Debbie292d]

This is my first winter with raising chickens myself (I got my current flock in the spring, did grow up with chickens but not quite the same as caring for them myself lol). I have a thermo chicken heated pad, it’s a wall heater. Will this do for the winter? We do get down to -45 in the winter. Our colder months are usually even a bit colder than your temps! We are just northwest of you, in Manitoba. I will not be hatching until closer to spring! Just trying to plan my spring preorder now

I will look into the horse pellet suggestion. We don’t have dust allergies luckily but always good to keep things clean!

Can I ask how coccidiosis forms? I’ve never had any diseases in my flock but of course want to be aware so it hopefully stays that way!

Cocciodosis spreads quickly in moist, poopy conditions and usually affects chicks 3-6 weeks old. You don't necessarily need to have Corid on hand, just know where you can get some fast should yours get this.

Some will feed medicated chick feed, which contains a low amount of amprolium that Corid has in it. I do when I get chicks from somewhere else, for about two weeks, so they get a little bit of immunity to their new surroundings. For my own, I don't. If you use medicated or Corid, that blocks Thiamin to be able to do its job. After finishing with either one, I will give them Poultry Cell or Nutra-Drench in their water every other day for a couple of weeks.

To know if they have coccidiosis, they'll usually stand around fluffed up, lethargic, and could have blood in their poop. The one time my older chicks about two months old got it from a wet rainy pen, they never showed a sign albeit I saw blood in their poo so treated them all with Corid.

 

[Ilovechickens2525]

Cocciodosis spreads quickly in moist, poopy conditions and usually affects chicks 3-6 weeks old. You don't necessarily need to have Corid on hand, just know where you can get some fast should yours get this.

Some will feed medicated chick feed, which contains a low amount of amprolium that Corid has in it. I do when I get chicks from somewhere else, for about two weeks, so they get a little bit of immunity to their new surroundings. For my own, I don't. If you use medicated or Corid, that blocks Thiamin to be able to do its job. After finishing with either one, I will give them Poultry Cell or Nutra-Drench in their water every other day for a couple of weeks.

To know if they have coccidiosis, they'll usually stand around fluffed up, lethargic, and could have blood in their poop. The one time my older chicks about two months old got it from a wet rainy pen, they never showed a sign albeit I saw blood in their poo so treated them all with Corid.

Ok so it can just form on its own, not just from contamination from someone coming from another farm or introducing chicks hatched on another farm? That is good to know.

 

[FunClucks]

Ok so it can just form on its own, not just from contamination from someone coming from another farm or introducing chicks hatched on another farm? That is good to know.

It lives naturally in the soil, you'll never get away from it. Keeping things dry keeps the amount lower. Chickens build immunity to it. When stressed, they can be more likely to have an outbreak.

 

[Debbie292d]

It lives naturally in the soil, you'll never get away from it. Keeping things dry keeps the amount lower. Chickens build immunity to it. When stressed, they can be more likely to have an outbreak.

I've also heard that there are more coccidia varieties in different parts of the States. There are nine strains of it that poultry can be affected by. Thus, if I have two varieties and your chickens are immune to two different ones and they come here, if older, they may be able to fight it off, but younger ones most likely would be susceptible to the new strains.

I'm not in the habit of buying chicks from anyone as of late, as I mostly just buy hatching eggs. If I ever do purchase chicks again, I'd see if they could be vaccinated. If from a private party, then I'd just feed them medicated feed for a couple of weeks and that should be good.

Another thing you can do, before putting them outside where there's dirt, to get a shovel full of grass/weeds with a big chunk of dirt along with it, and put that in the brooder. It gives them a treat, plus exposes them to the coccidia in your area subtly, and they'd develop resistance before they even get out into the dirt. Be sure to provide grit before giving chicks anything besides their feed. Depending on your soil, there may be grit in that dirt already.

 

[Ilovechickens2525]

Alright next step in the process!

I’m going to place my preorder for early in the spring season. Wanting to add about 6-8 so I don’t fill my coop too full. I have room for 11 more at this point allowing 4 sqft per bird and 15 in the run, I don’t want to push things to the absolute max. Anyway, with that in mind how many should I be ordering accounting for roosters and some possibly not hatching. 16? 24? Somewhere in between?

I do want a mix of breeds. I’m wanting legbars and mosaics I think for sure. I also am considering adding a few more marans, this hatchery has splash, blue and black marans so I’m curious what I’d get! And considering Swedish flower hens and bielefelders.

Is it worth just getting 2/3 of one of them or is that too big a chance they’d be roosters or not hatch and better to focus on just a few of the ones I’ve mentioned? Or do any of you love the variety and it is what it is if some don’t turn out to be pullets?