It's a bit too early IMO. Start about Feb 1 for April 1 switch from basement to coop. After about 1 month, 25 chicks take up a lot of space and make a lot of mess to be keeping indoors. There are no magic tricks, just proper food, cleanliness and correct brooding temperatures. Start with a good book. I've yet to find one on chickens that I feel is truly outstanding. Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens is as thorough and complete as any. If you're ordering a multiple breed assortment, you may want to have arrangements for seperate brooders for some slower, smaller or unusual breeds such as cresteds. Good luck.

Hi, I live on Long Island! I ordered my first chicks last spring from Mcmurray. They arrived on March 27th. I brooded them in my house till Memorial day. LOL. They could have gone out a few weeks earlier but they weather was bad & it took us a long time to complete the coop. I think the rule is 6-8 weeks before they can be in temps under 70 degrees.
There are lots of great books on chicken keeping that tell all the details of caring for them till they go outside.
Have you decided what breeds you'll pick?

I am leaning heavily on Rhode Island Reds. I would like to maybe mix a few Barred Rocks in as well. My brother and I will be splitting the order. He taking maybe 5, I raising the rest. I am actually hoping that the females I order will have a rooster or two mixed in by mistake.
Is that uncommon, or should we just order a couple roos?
Has anyone ordered from McMurray and had this happen?

I would hold off until later spring if you can, your birds should be fully feathered before they go outside to live and believe me you will not want them inside for that long. The later you can hold off the warmer it will be for them to go outside at an earlier age. You can still place your order in advance to secure your birds.

I recommend Ideal Hatchery, they are very nice to deal with. If you really want a roo I would order the breed you would like. Many of the extras hatcheries throw in are odd varieties that you may not like or want. I would also throw in a few "Americaunas" you won't regret those blue eggs!

Sheila

you will get at least one "exotic" roo with your order, but you won't have any idea what it will be. rhode island red roos have a bad reputation for being aggressive. Are you planning on keeping them as pets or just for eggs?
My birds are my pets so I choose breeds that lay well but are friendly & cold hardy.

Here is a link that might be useful: breed chart

I would like them to be non-aggressive. If Rhode Island Reds tend to bully other breeds, I suppose I could stick to Barred Rocks or Buff Orps. I have been reading that RIR's tend to be a bit dominant. As for a rooster, that HAS to be friendly. I have a young son that will be in contact and I can't have the rooster going after him. I will give him away the first time he shows the trait. I should say, My WIFE will!
The only reason I would truly want a rooster would be for chicks. Although for protection when they free range would be nice. My back yard abutts hundreds of acres of woods. Everything from coyotes, fox, fisher cats, owls, hawks, (especially hawks)are out there.I am not sure to what extent a rooster can protect, but I have heard stories of incredible courage exibited by them.
Velvet's story of her rooster Jack's rescue of one his girls from a Red-Tailed hawk is amazing. My golden retriever helps to keep things at bay, but he also, I think, might be a bit too rough on the birds. I understand that the best form of protection is to keep them penned in, but I would love them to have a bit a freedom too.
Is there a truly 100% guaranteed friendly breed of rooster?

Hi just be aware that even the greatest rooster can become a victim. I have all my chickens and roosters in a enclosed pen with a enclosed outside access. We aquired a bunch of chickens and roosters from someone and after comming home the two identical males started fighting with each other. Plus my males and females would not get a long with the new ones. So we had to close off half the barn and than add another out door area. To house the new chickens. My old crew will not accept any other chickens in with them so we had to expand more into the barn for more area to add the babies we hatched. Two males made it in but the two males fought untill bloody we had no choice but to free range them. One took up resident in our carport and the other in the bottom barn. Of course someone dropped off a almost dead starved dog who was vicious and managed to get one rooster, next day he was back and smelled out my other before the dog was taken care of he managed to kill the other. We had a racoon get one at first when we started in the barn as I never realized any tiny hole they can chew and chew untill they get in. Get luck on raising them in basement it can be done. I raised my babies in a large dog kennel with light clipped on outside untill they were old enough for the farm. Lots of daily cleaning for the smell and a few nicely placed renuzit odor killer air freshners and it was fine. I noticed they grew quicker once at farm. I have placed my order first time with Mc Murrary Hatchery for 25 mixed females. They will be delivered in March. Hmmm we will see how snow goes hardly any for us so far. They will stay in our barn though as we have a brooder/space heater hanging as well as lights. Our new neighbors will be living in their new home in March and will be getting their crew from us.We have approx 80 chickens and roosters right now.

We have ordered two batches of chicks from McMurry and had no problems. But there are a few thing I would do differently. First I will never raise them in my basement again. We always order a delivery date of no earlier than May or June. The first Batch we ordered we started them out in a huge metal watering tank. We placed a peice of wire over top (they can and do fly up and out as they get their feathers in)We placed the brooder bulb in one of those automobile light fixtures that have a clamp on the bottom. We just clamped the bulb to the side of the metal tub and angled it down. I would recomend a red bulb so if they start picking at one and they draw blood it wont be so easily seen and there wont be a free for all gang fight on the injured chick. If that doesnt work a small dab of vicks vapor rub on the injured chick ensures that everyone will leave him alone. We found that as the chicks matured the smell was horrible. We got to the point that we were changing the bedding 3 times a day also as they get their feathers in they develope a "dust " that coats their feathers and this will coat everything in your basement and be a big ordeal to clean up. So we just choose not to go thru that again. So when we order and have a delivery date for may or june we only have to keep the chicks in the basement for maybe a week or less depending on the temp and out they go up to the chik proofed hen house. We have three different hen houses with coverd yards and we just rotate the hens thru. We like Rhode Island Red hens, they are very sweet and can be tamed easily. My 4 year old son carries them around all of the time. Now the RIR Roosters are an entirely different story. I hated the one we had he was the meanest rooster we have everhad and we finaly had to "dispose" Of him and he is now fertalizing the garden. This rooster would hide and wait to catch anyone unawares and then he would be on you, spurring the heck out of you. He has got me, my oldest son and even had my youngest on the ground pecking him on the head. He got my husband once to the point he had a puncture wound and was bleeding. It got to the point if that coop was out free rangeing or if I had to go into the coop to feed or clean water dishes I took a large stick and had to whack him to keep him off of me. Any way this is my 2 cents worth. Good luck on your chickens. The last time we ordered the Red Star/Rhode Island Red package, we ordered a run of hens only and lucked out that the free rare chick was the only rooster we got.......Josette

I'm sure everyone has their own ideas on the best rooster breeds etc. I would say buff orps. are your best bet but keep in mind there are exceptions to every rule. You also may want to check out your local animal shelter, they usually have an abundance of roo's (at least ours does). The benefit is you'll already know their personality.

We currently have 71 chickens of which 6 are roosters. I occasionally have one fly at me and carry a long handled fish net to discipline with. When a rooster flys at me, I catch him in the net and keep him on the ground until the hens all gather around and laugh. A rooster just hates to be confined in front of his harem.

We had to get rid of two Barred Rock roos because they were just brutal to the hens. They would even keep the hens from getting up on the roosts in the evenings! They became soup. These others are young and testing me (they never "test" my husband though) and I will give them the net thing a few times before we decide who to keep. There are two black ones and a Americana that seem very tame and have caused no problems - so far.

These all free-range so they have plenty of space and I think the ratio of one roo to just over 10 hens should work. Still, I don't want to take chances with grandkids around.