Today I want to share with you how to welcome your first flock home!

Congratulations!!!

When we first decided to bring layers home, my husband and I were so overwhelmed. We asked people left and right: “What kind do we get?” “How do we build a coop?” “Free Range or pen?”

Where you live.

Where you live plays a key part in choosing your chickens. We live in Northern Minnesota so we had to look at getting some hardy chickens that still produced enough eggs during the winter tim. We also wanted to get enough chickens so they could keep each other warm in the coop.

We ended up with 4 Buff Orpingtons and 4 Plymouth Barred Rocks. That makes a total of 8. We got a few more than we originally wanted to make up for any that would potentially die.

First 4 weeks

The first 4 weeks we watched them closely. Feeding and watering daily. Moving the heat lamp up slowly every week and cleaning out their bin.

When it came time to clean their bin we would put them in a kiddie pool with fencing around it and let them run and play. My two older girls were younger at the the time and would sit in the pool and play with the chicks. Then we would scoop out the bin and add in fresh shavings.

Around 4 weeks they had majority of feathers and didn’t need the heat lamp that much. They eventually got to big and messy to be inside the house. The dust they would kick up coated the window sills, table and floor. So outside to the garage they went.

Our garage is heated so if the night was going to be too cold for them we would turn the heat on and make sure it was to their temperature.

They stayed in the garage for another 4 weeks. We made a pen out in the yard that we would bring them out to daily. It became more a chore to round them back up to put back into the garage, but we felt it was important to start getting them use to the outside. The pen was garden stakes, poultry fence and fencing on the top. We had an old plastic dog house we used as shelter for them. They loved being outside!

Heat.

When you first get your chicks you want to have their own brooding area to be a balmy 90-95 degrees. By 5 weeks you want the temp around 70-75. And by week 6 you want to be around 65. So each day or every few days you’ll move the heat lamp up. You can buy a thermometer to keep in the bin to know the temp. You’ll also be able to tell whether the bin is too hot or too cold by the chicks; if they are bundled under the lamp on top of each other it’s too cold, if they are far away from the lamp they are too hot but if they are under the lamp but sprawled out, then they are happy!

Food

As chicks they need chick starter; we used Purina chick starter. Then after about 8 weeks they were on egg layer food. We fed the little chicks a lot during the day, but if they ran out at night we didn’t worry. We didn’t start a feed schedule until they were free range.

We decided to let our chickens free range. If we ever saw any problems with predators then we would creat a pen area. So far, so good. We got the chicks in April and by June they were big enough to roam. (Looking back I’d maybe wait another month or so.) But they did good! Getting them to coop up at night became tricky the first few times.

The first day they got to roam was also the first night for them in the coop.

We would turn the Coop light on around 9:l0pm, (yes it doesn’t start getting dark till then during the summer) and they would naturally head back to the coop as the sun was going down. But they wouldn’t go in, so we had to herd them in. Next time I do this stage I would put the chicks into their coop for a few days before letting them be outside free so they understand this is their coop and let them come out on their own time frame around day 3-4. Live and learn! But when we were turning the coop light on we would make a trail of food to their coop and fill their feeders; they would eat at night and get let out the next morning at 11am.

coop

Our coop is nothing special. It was on our property when we bought our house, it’s literally 4 sheets of plywood and a door. We added in two vents on the west side and a window facing south. During the winter we needed to have the coop breath and the chickens needed natural sun light.

The coop is not insulated but with a heat lamp we would turn it on for those -40 nights they did just fine!

First egg

We got our first egg in September! It was a great find! They won’t lay their first egg until around 6 months so we were expecting it to be the first few weeks of September.

We made their nesting boxes 1x1x1 and layered them with hay. We made 3 nesting boxes because I had read that 2-3 hens like to share one box.

And there you have it. How to start with baby layers. I hope this helps and if I missed anything or if you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment or email me!