Hello I'm new here but I'm in way over my head with chickens

Welcome to the flock - wow, you seem to be doing well - wish you continued success and growth with your egg sales and meat birds.

Welcome to BYC! We're glad to have you.

Hello there and welcome to BYC!

Wow you are up to your armpits in chickens!! But it does sound like to me that this experience is priceless to your growth and knowledge about poultry. You will never look back and say you shouldn't have done it. Keep up all the fun and learning!!

Enjoy your growing flock and welcome to ours!

Just my .... (and I did not read the whole thread so this may have already been covered)

If you wanted to do work that you did not enjoy - work to just get a pay check - you could do that anywhere, for fewer hours, benefits and probably better pay.
If you choose to work from home, it should be because you love what you're doing. Or - at the very least - get a sense of satisfaction from.

Don't let this become drudgery. Chickens are fun. And even a production farm can be enjoyed. With that many birds already - and more on the way - I would suggest that you start making changes to make your work more efficient.

How are you feeding them? I have a trash can with a trigger feeder in the bottom. For my small flock of 15, I dump two 50lb bags in about once a month or so and forget it. If you installed several of them you could probably take your feeding chores down to once a week or less.

What sorts of waterers are you using? Keeping the ice out and the water clean is always a problem. There is a thread on here ('heated waterer' or something like that) where they mounted horizontal water nipples in a pipe that came out the bottom of a tank. Several like that would accommodate your birds' varied ages, keep it clean, keep it thawed - and possibly bring your watering chores down to once a week or less.

eta: found the post : https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/915954/water-system-heated-and-cooled

Do you have roll out nest boxes? Something to consider. They will keep the eggs clean, and make collection easy for anyone (send the kids down to get them and not worry about open gates etc.).

Plan, plan, plan so that you are prepared before things go sideways and panicky. Take a breather between 'phase 1' and 'phase 2' to work out the bugs. No sense having to re-do/re-work things in both coops if they proove to not be working like you thought they would.

Have fun.
... otherwise.. what's the point???

Welcome to BYC Glad you joined us!

Glad you joined us!