Why is spring the traditional time to begin raising baby chicks? The main reason is that, in the past, chickens simply laid fewer eggs than they do today—and their top laying season was in the spring, so more eggs were available then for hatching. However, since modern chicken breeds have been selected for higher production and near-year-round laying, we can now choose to raise chicks almost any time of year. Fall has some important advantages!
Raise chicks in the fall? You bet. You can start your laying flock as soon as NOW!
The number one reason to raise chicks in the fall is that your pet chickens will be the right age to begin laying the next spring, so they lay wonderfully once they begin since it’s seasonal for them to lay more eggs in the springtime as the days are growing longer. It’s glorious!
So far, we’ve been unable to teach them to adorn their nests with spring flowers.
If you’ve chosen breeds that are excellent layers (such as the Rhode Island Red, the Australorp, the Speckled Sussex, and so on), each young bird could be laying as many as seven eggs a week . But even breeds that are fair or poor layers will be laying at their top speed. And believe me, those first backyard eggs you get from your own flock will be the best you’ve ever tasted! You’ll probably be eating more eggs, not only because you’ll have so many, but because they’re so delicious–so having your chickens laying lots of eggs is wonderful, since you’ll have plenty to use.
A second important advantage you get when you raise chicks in the fall is that–if you start them in early fall–their laying is delayed until your birds reach a larger size. While you’d not initially think of this as an advantage, they will lay generally larger eggs throughout their lives, and they’ll lay with more consistency when they experience increasing daylight at the right age.
If I begin laying now, I may as well start laying snow balls.
There are advantages to starting chicks in the spring, though, especially in the north. When you start chicks in the spring, it’s warm (or at the least warmER) outdoors when chicks are old enough to move outside. This means the transition from brooder to coop is much easier, because they’ll be moving from their (by-then) room temperature brooder to similar temperate weather outside. But the traditional problem with spring-raised chicks is that, just as they begin laying, the daylight hours are growing shorter and signaling them to lay fewer eggs during the winter season. This means spring-raised chicks will be producing eggs quite sporadically for their first few months of laying, in comparison to fall-reared chicks.
If you do decide to raise chicks in the fall, the most important thing to remember is to be prepared to provide temporary supplemental heat to help your young birds transition to cold outside weather.