When can I leave hatchlings?

[newmumwithquestions]

Sorry for the long post.... essentially i’d like to know how old do you think chicks should be before leaving them with minimal care for 1 or 2 weeks?

I have a couple of girls and want to add to the flock. Very excited as we’ve decided to go for hatching eggs. I know where I’ll get them from and am just trying to work out everything we’ll need. I’m assuming that the next few weeks would be a good time to start them off.

But... we have a holiday booked in a couple of months. I was going to ask (well, pay) my neighbours teenagers to look after our girls whilst we’re away - I’d clean everything before I went so it’s just feeding/watering them really and they’re more than capable of doing that.

But if we have hatchlings I’m not sure if this is possible, do they need a lot of looking after? I’m planning on getting a separate coop/run so I can allow them to grow before integrating them with the other girls but was planning on free ranging them together during the day as a ‘transition’ phase. So I need to be around then and the separate run won’t be very big so I can’t leave them in it when they’re too big. But on the other hand I can’t leave chicks in their own.

Any advice on timing appreciated!

Are you ready to dispatch the boys after hatching? I’m sure you know you’ll have a few boys and you’ll need to have some plannof what to do with them. If you’re one of the lucky ones who can keep cockerels of course ot doesn’t apply.

Chicks will need to be fully feathered before they can even go outside so at the beginning they’ll have to be under a heat lamp/brooder and indoors.
The ‘merging’ will probably depend ob the size of the breeds you have as well but you new chicks will need to be on growers until they start laying, which in principle is 18 weeks plus but should be kept on growers until they’re all laying.

I short if you’re going away ina couple of months and haven’t evennstarted hatching, they’d still need to be indoors (or with broody mum) while you’re away.

Ok thanks.

I’ve got a plan for the cockerels - someone I know has a small holding and a buyer for any cockerel meat. It’s a bit sad for them but they have a much much better life than any commercial chickens (and actually get a decent life before dispatch).
We may keep one cockerel anyway, but not more.
We’ve got a place indoors where I’m planning on raising them until they can go outside... Its just over 2m x 2m so I think big enough (we’re only thinking 6 eggs as 2-3 new girls is enough for us, we’d be fine with 4-5 but any more and I think the chicken house would start to get a bit full.

I guess any quarters inside need more cleaning out than outside runs though as it’s a much smaller area than they’ll have outside so I guess it’s not really a ‘teenage’ job to look after them inside whilst we’re away....
So I should start them off post holiday I guess.

Is there a time in the year when it gets too late to start them off ? I wouldn’t want to be moving them outside in winter but if I started them in the summer so they’re going out in the autumn is that too late?

I’m not sure what the latest is, I’m sure I hatched in June.

I agree with the better life for cockerels, I wish I had a farm like this near me. :-)

Good luck with your hatch!