The Best Time to Get Backyard Chickens: A Seasonal Guide

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Raising backyard chickens is feasible for many families, even those in suburban neighborhoods. A small flock of 5 to 6 hens will produce enough eggs for most families. Chickens are easy keepers and a great way to extend age-appropriate responsibility to children. Additionally, a backyard flock is a great way to introduce kids to where food comes from in a sustainable way. With spring right around the corner, what is the best time of year to get chickens?

The Perfect Season to Purchase Chicks

The perfect time to purchase baby chicks will depend on a few factors. Consider your reasons for keeping chickens. Are you looking for egg layers, or do you want to raise chickens for meat? Your climate is one of the biggest considerations. New chicks need to be kept at about 100 degrees until they are fully feathered. The fluff that chicks are covered with when they hatch can not trap their body heat to keep them warm.  Most people use a heat lamp or heating plates until the chickens feather out and can regulate their body temperatures. Depending on where you live, raising chickens in the colder months including early spring,  late fall, or even winter will be especially challenging. 

Spring Chicks

Beginning your chicken keeping journey in the spring is the most popular time of year. Common farm stores typically begin their “Chick Day” events in late February through approximately May. However, some stores keep poultry much longer due to their popularity in their area. These local feed stores purchase day-old chicks from hatcheries in bulk and offer a variety of common breeds with a smaller minimum purchase than what you can order from a hatchery yourself. Purchased in-store, Tractor Supply requires you to purchase a minimum of 6 chicks per their store policy. Whereas, my favorite hatchery, Myers Poultry requires a minimum purchase of 15 birds. For most families, 15 is a LOT of chickens and often more than what is allowed by local regulations if you live in the city limits or a suburban area. 

Our Preferred Season

I like raising young chicks in the spring. The main reason for this is that ensures I will have eggs throughout the winter. Depending on the breeds of chickens you choose, most young pullets begin laying between 5 and 6 months of age. While older hens who have been laying all year will molt and lay fewer eggs in the winter, young pullets are just beginning their egg production. Regardless of shorter days and less light, your young hens are going to lay eggs! 

Another reason I like to raise chicks in the spring or summer is so that I have plenty of time to integrate the young chicks into my flock before winter. Since we live in a cold climate, it’s important that the chickens can live together in a solid structure.  Not only is providing multiple chicken coops costly but keeping the birds together helps keep them warmer in the winter months. It’s amazing how warm the birds are all fluffed up together on their roost. 

Fall Chicks

Raising chicks in the fall is another good option depending on your goals.  The biggest perk to raising chicks in the fall going into winter, is that young birds eat a lot less than full-grown laying hens. At this time of the year, the amount of forage will begin to decrease.  Adult laying hens that previously were foraging for most of their diet will need additional supplemental feed to meet their dietary requirements. This means the feed bill will be going up! 

Like spring chicks you will need to provide supplemental heat until the chicks are fully feathered.  However, once they are feathered out you can wean them off the heat. Like other farm animals, they adjust well to the temperatures as long as you provide a draft-free area where they can get out of inclement weather. While many people provide a heat source in their chicken coop in cold weather we do not. An abundance of dry hay or wood shavings is the perfect kindling making heat lamps the biggest cause of barn fires. Chickens properly acclimated to the local temperature and are provided a dry, draft-free area will be just fine throughout the winter months. 

Chicks that hatch in the fall will begin laying in the spring.  This is especially helpful if you want to raise chickens for breeding stock.  These young hens will begin laying just in time for chick season. Like mature hens, they will typically molt the following fall and have decreased egg production throughout the winter. 

Disadvavatages to Fall Chicks

One of the disadvantages of raising chicks in the fall is that you may not have enough time to properly integrate the young hens into your main flock. I integrate chicks slowly by keeping them in smaller playpens inside the chicken yard. This allows the older chickens time to get used to them before we integrate them fully. This often means that I move the young birds frequently. I keep them in secure brooders at night or in bad weather, but move them into the playyard during the day. Another option is to divide your existing coop even temporarily.  This allows the young chicks a safe place to live while the older birds accept them into the flock. Integrating new chickens too quickly can lead to fighting and loss of life. 

Summer Chicks

Raising chicks in the summer is another good option.  Many local feed stores will be selling chicks at reduced prices to minimize their inventory, though that may mean you have fewer choices when it comes to varieties of chickens. Chicks that hatch in the summer will still need supplemental heat at least part of the time.  On warm days you may get away with less heat, but be mindful of drafts and wind that might cause the chicks to get too cold. As long as they are covered with fluff, they do not have the ability to regulate their own body temperatures. 

I keep a thermometer in my brooder that helps me monitor the temperatures. My favorite thermometer allows me to place a sensor in the brooder but read the monitor in the house. I keep it in an area that I can monitor frequently. In the heat of summer, I had to watch my brooder closely to ensure I didn’t overheat my chicks. 

Raising chicks in the hot summer comes with its own challenges. Mites are more prevalent in the summer months. The most common types of mites are northern fowl mites, red mites, and scaly leg mites. 

Can I Raise Chicks in the Winter?

Technically the answer is yes, you can raise chicks in the winter months.  They will be much harder to source and depending on where you live hatcheries will not ship chicks in the mail. Even as an experienced homesteader, winter would never be my choice for raising chicks unless you have an area that is temperature-controlled for the duration of the winter.  That includes even when the chicks are no longer cute and fluffy, but large and messy. The chicks will not be able to be taken outside until the temperatures have warmed sufficiently.  Unlike birds that have been kept outside and naturally adjust to the temperatures by growing thicker plumage, birds kept inside will not have suitable feathering to keep them warm. Just like young seedlings, you would need to slowly move them outside for short periods of time at first and then longer periods of time as they adjust. 

If you want to get chickens in the winter, consider point of lay hens. Point of lay chickens are hens that are at the age to start laying eggs. This simply means that someone else raised the chicks and is selling young pullets at the time they start laying eggs.  These birds should be acclimated to your area and would be able to be housed appropriately outside. Though point of lay hens cost significantly more than day-old chicks, at 5 to 6 months of age, these birds have had significant resources poured into them to provide you with healthy chickens ready to reward you with fresh eggs. 

Ordering Directly from a Hatchery

Buying chicks locally is one of the most common ways to begin your chicken keeping journey, it’s so hard to resist the cute balls of fluff! If you can’t find chicks locally or are looking for specific breeds, consider ordering chicks from a hatchery. Mail-order hatcheries sell day-old chicks and send them through the post office.  It’s best to communicate your shipment of chicks with the post office, providing them with your phone number. Be prepared to get the chicks as soon as you get the call. 

Hatcheries allow you to mix and match your chicks with some restrictions and their minimum number of chicks does vary. Minimum numbers are in place to keep chicks warmer through shipment. A popular hatchery allows for smaller groups of chicks but charges a small order fee. Hatcheries also limit shipping areas based on colder climates. Since hatcheries guarantee your chicks will arrive as healthy chicks, they want to ensure that they will not get too cold during the shipping process.  

We typically order all of our meat birds directly from the hatchery to ensure we get the number of birds we want to raise at exactly the time of year we want to not only raise the chickens but also schedule our meat processing. Very popular breeds of chickens need to be ordered many months in advance so that hatcheries can plan ahead to hatch enough birds. We typically order our meat birds in December or January for the following spring delivery.  You choose your delivery dates when the order is placed so you know exactly when to expect your shipment.

The Ideal Time to Raise Young Chickens

The best time to raise chicks is a personal preference based on your goals for keeping them and your weather conditions. The time of year you choose may set you up for success, or it may make the journey more challenging though not impossible. Typically the best time of year to get chickens for most families will be spring into early fall. Like all animals, chicks should not be an impulse buy! These are live animals that require proper housing, fresh water, and specialized feed. While chickens are easy to raise, giving them the best home you can should be the goal of every chicken keeper!