Article by Ideal Poultry Breeding Farms EST. 1937
There are plenty of benefits of fall chicks. Imagine stepping into your coop on a bright beautiful springtime morning to find freshly laid eggs ready for cleaning and eating. If you buy chicks now, during the fall months, this could be you next spring!
Chickens typically start laying eggs around 6 months of age making fall hatched chicks the perfect age for laying when spring begins. Unfortunately for chicks hatched in the spring months, they will be reaching laying maturity when the days are getting shorter and colder causing very inconsistent egg-laying during the first few months. Shorter days resulting in a decrease of sunlight alerting their bodies that winter is approaching and the rate of lay will begin to slow. Fall babies will have passed this “winter delay” and will have reached egg laying maturity by the time spring rolls around again and daylight begins to increase. Your pullets will be loving the 14 hours of sunlight! Since the girls will be close to a year old, you can expect big eggs at a steady pace, especially from our year-round laying breeds such as Black Sex links, Rhode Island Reds, and Ideal 236.
You can beat the rush on spring ordering on some of our more popular breeds by waiting to buy later in the year. Sadly, not all our breeds are available to buy during the fall months, but we have many breeds, including some of the more rare breeds, to satisfy your chicken needs. Standard breeds like the Barred Rock, Easter Egger, and Red Sex Link hatch every week through the end of the year but breeds like the Speckled Sussex, Naked Neck, Delaware, Dominque, and even Brahmas are available through November.
Get a start on your chick order now and avoid the hassle of springtime ordering all while enjoying delicious springtime eggs.
More info here. Find our fall chick schedule here!
Example of Some of Our Chickens:
Red Sex Links were developed in the 1950’s by crossing a Rhode Island Red male with a Delaware female for efficient brown egg production and ease of sexing. Red Sex Link chicks have single combs and clean, yellow legs and feet. Male chicks are light yellow with some black, but have no red down, while females have red down very similar to Production Reds. This difference in down color allows the hatchery to easily sex chicks at day of hatch. Adult males have a similar body type to Production Reds, but with all white plumage. Adult females have a red plumage color that is darker than New Hampshire Reds, but lighter than Rhode Island Reds.
Easter Eggers are multicolored with pea combs, beards, muffs and clean, light black or gray legs and feet. They lay bluish green eggs with the occasional bird laying brown eggs.