More and more people are thinking of getting chickens nowadays, which is a great thing, but it does mean you have to think ahead so that you’re able to get the supplies you need.
Today, I’m going to talk about 3 things that you should be thinking about and planning for even as early as January if you’re planning on getting chickens in the spring.
Hey, this is Ashley at Headrick Homestead and today I’m bringing you another two minute quick tip.
2020 was a huge year for the homesteading world. So many people jumped into getting chickens or growing a garden, which is absolutely fantastic, but it meant that some of the common products and services that homesteaders and hobby farmers use were sold out for many of the 2020 season.
Order your Chicks Early
So if you are thinking of getting started with chickens this year in 2021, here are three things that you should be planning right now.
First of all, order your chicks early. ASAP. Like right now in January if you can. If you’re planning on getting chickens, put in the order. Now that doesn’t mean that you have to get them right now, but at least put in your order for later this spring or summer.
A lot of the major hatcheries are sold out on popular breeds of chicks earlier in the season, so put in your order right away.
Make your Processing Plans Along with your Ordering Date
And second, if you are doing meat, birds or turkeys and you are not planning on processing them yourselves, make sure you book your butcher date.
Processors were hit with a lot of demand last year, and they were booked out throughout the season.
And the last thing you want to do is get your chicks and then realize that you don’t have a processing plan for them.
In fact, I would check with your processor now before ordering your chicks so you can make sure you get your chicks and have that processing date set in place. It will just give you a lot of peace of mind.
Order Chick Supplies Early
Finally, number three, I would say order your supplies that you’re going to need early.
Some popular items were out of stock for a lot of the year last year. Things like Premier Ones electric poultry netting was out of stock a lot throughout the season. Even our local farm stores had a lot of trouble keeping in chicken feeders and waters.
So as you’re in your planning stages, just go ahead and submit your order, go to your local feed store, pick up a feeder water. It’s not that expensive and you’ll have what you need when you need it.
Then you don’t need to be planning on making those last minute trips to the store because you don’t want to get there and find out that they don’t have anything to throw some things up here.
Basically, the rule of the game for getting chickens is to plan ahead.
Try to beat that crazy spring rush because it’s going to happen, and I want to make sure that you get the supplies you want for your first batch of chickens.
So that’s all for today’s two minute quick tip. Thanks for following along. I’m so excited for you to get chickens this year.
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