Overwhelmed and Exhausted

Hoping for some support today. I am in way over my head at the moment! I lost 8 chickens over the past year to coyotes and foxes, so have started with a vengeance this year trying to build my flock. I ordered 4 each of 4 different breeds. (19 sent) I then hatched out three more a week later. I set another clutch and got 11 from that group (mostly of ANOTHER breed 6 weeks later.)

I am now so overwhelmed, as I am not able to house all of them together because of age. Combined with my remaining two from last year, I now have 35 chickens. My oldest two have turned into total Dementors appearing out of nowhere trying to peck the 8 week olds if I let them out for five minutes to clean their coop. Armed with a garden hose, scooper, new shavings, spray cleaner, rubber gloves, fresh food, and Wellies, I look like I work in hazardous waste. Along with my pajama pants and raggedy t-shirt (can you tell I haven't slept in months?), my hair in jumbles, etc. I am a real sight.

In my exuberance, I didn't calculate that they would all have to be housed separately for months!

I am struggling to build coops to house the different breeds, five, as well as cleaning a brooder, 2 coops and a large run. Anyone else in this situation? I swear, all I seem to do is feed, water and clean out poop and wet shavings, as well as cleaning feeders and waterers every ten seconds.

I am chicken insane right now. I love chickens, but am wondering if this is all worth it!

Am I alone in this? Or are there many of you out there who have over-chickened themselves this spring????

Hugs for you. Can't offer any advice...

BantyChooks said:

Hugs for you. Can't offer any advice...

Click to expand...

Thank you. I'll get over my pity party soon! Next year, I will definitely consider ages before embarking.

I'm kind of in the same boat, thankfully I have tons of pens already but it's still a bit overwhelming when I think, "I have 80 chickens. What the heck am I gonna do with 80 chickens!?!?" Thankfully about a quarter or 1/3 of them are boys and will hit the freezer as soon as they hit full size. Hopefully before the army of roosters terrorize my hens too much!! With my families intent to never buy store bought chicken or turkey again we hatched a ton of birds and then I wanted some more breeds so we ordered a ton of birds! It's a bit hard juggling the different pens i wound up having to intergrate my 10 week old chicks and my 7 weekers. Thankfully that's going well only some minor scaubbles. Thankfully i have a bunch of pens built already. Good luck in your chicken endeavors!