Chicken Confessional: I'm a little scared!

[castillo_de_luz]

I hope some of you experienced chicken keepers can remember all the way back to your first foray into the world of chickens and perhaps sympathize with how I'm feeling. Or maybe I'm nuts.

I'm a born and raised city and suburban dweller -- I've never been on a horse, held a baby goat, milked a cow, or umm interacted with chickens. Ever. My childhood pets were fish, a pet store parakeet, and indoor cats (and my current household is run by one precious Maine Coon cat).

As the house hunt shifted from a small condo or townhouse to a real SFH on some land, I started thinking about chickens. Fresh eggs. Great compost for a new veggie garden. So when we moved to this 1-acre property last year, I knew it was time to get serious and make a plan for a small flock.

I've probably done more research than most would consider healthy, and fortunately have access to real live human friends who are longtime chicken people and have provided real-world information too. I think I'm as prepared as anyone can possibly be at this point, T-minus 49 days from picking up 5 Dominique pullets.

As excited and happy as I usually am, there's a part of me that's terrified of taking this whole thing on. What if I hate it? What if I can't tolerate all the poop and cleaning? What if we get a rat infestation? What if the birds get super sick, or hurt, or killed in some horrific way? I understand intellectually that any of these things could happen, but unlike other areas of my life, I have no previous experience in dealing with this. I'm not overly squeamish about some things, but disgusting smells or a mauled bird... I don't know how I'd react to that.

This whole post is really just to say that I'm 70% excited to begin the chicken adventure but 30% horrified at the many possible forms of misery this entire undertaking could produce. And believe it or not, this is considered progress in "well-managed anxiety" for me!

Words of advice? Sanity check? Anyone else felt/feel this way, or have a different personal tale to add to the Chicken Confessional? (Corn-fessional?)

 

[The Moonshiner]

They're chickens though. If they turn out to be something you're not into you can eat them.

 

[Chichin Mama]

Yes! I absolutely felt this way when I first got chickens, this will be my third year of chicken keeping.

You are right. Things can and do happen. Predators are out there and diseases come. But you also learn as you go. I definitely didn't start out knowing everything with my first batch of chicks. It sounds like you have done a great job researching and have quite a bit of knowledge tucked under your belt already.

Some advice I would give you is
1. While bad things can and do happen, learn from those hard experiences and try not to blame yourself.

2. Not everyone's situation is identical. At the end of the day, you do what is best for you and your unique situation.

You've got this! You are going to do great!

 

[fluffycrow]

I remember the first time I lost a bird I liked to a predator. The fox had taken the head and neck, and had opened a gash on her back, exposing her insides. I was very shaken up after that. I had had chickens for a couple of years at that point, so I was certain that I did not want to stop keeping them; the worry of going through that again was very prevalent, however. I can understand why one would want to quit after that.

The way I see it, you've had birds inside your house, you've had cats inside your house. "What if I hate it" applies to those animals as well. The fact that you've enjoyed animals in general points to the fact that you'll probably enjoy chickens. Just like the other animals you've had, if you do indeed find them too much, you can rehome them. Or unlike most pets, you can also eat them.
Get the birds first, worry later. I'm betting that by the time the first "bad" moment comes, you will have already decided chickens are worth it

 

[RoyalChick]

I hope some of you experienced chicken keepers can remember all the way back to your first foray into the world of chickens and perhaps sympathize with how I'm feeling. Or maybe I'm nuts.

I'm a born and raised city and suburban dweller -- I've never been on a horse, held a baby goat, milked a cow, or umm interacted with chickens. Ever. My childhood pets were fish, a pet store parakeet, and indoor cats (and my current household is run by one precious Maine Coon cat).

As the house hunt shifted from a small condo or townhouse to a real SFH on some land, I started thinking about chickens. Fresh eggs. Great compost for a new veggie garden. So when we moved to this 1-acre property last year, I knew it was time to get serious and make a plan for a small flock.

I've probably done more research than most would consider healthy, and fortunately have access to real live human friends who are longtime chicken people and have provided real-world information too. I think I'm as prepared as anyone can possibly be at this point, T-minus 49 days from picking up 5 Dominique pullets.

As excited and happy as I usually am, there's a part of me that's terrified of taking this whole thing on. What if I hate it? What if I can't tolerate all the poop and cleaning? What if we get a rat infestation? What if the birds get super sick, or hurt, or killed in some horrific way? I understand intellectually that any of these things could happen, but unlike other areas of my life, I have no previous experience in dealing with this. I'm not overly squeamish about some things, but disgusting smells or a mauled bird... I don't know how I'd react to that.

This whole post is really just to say that I'm 70% excited to begin the chicken adventure but 30% horrified at the many possible forms of misery this entire undertaking could produce. And believe it or not, this is considered progress in "well-managed anxiety" for me!

Words of advice? Sanity check? Anyone else felt/feel this way, or have a different personal tale to add to the Chicken Confessional? (Corn-fessional?)

Awwww. I am sure you will be fine and learn to love them as we all did.
I got chickens by accident and had never interacted with a live chicken. I ended up with these pullets in a tote in my garage and a sort of coop in the yard. I had no idea how to transport them from the garage to the coop. I had no idea how to pick one up or hold it (thank goodness for YouTube!). Did they fly? Would they try and escape?
They wormed their way into my heart because having consulted the internet on how to hold them I managed to pick one up and carry it over to the coop. The others immediately jumped out of their tote and followed me, chatting to me the whole way.
What was not to love!

I am guessing you haven't yet got your chickens? Have you decided the basics of your set up? I found things like the coop build and discussion of deep litter etc. on this forum amazingly helpful for me to figure out how to care for them.

Good luck - and never be afraid to ask questions here.

 

[sourland]

Relax and enjoy. All the anxiety accomplishes nothing.

 

[TaylorGlade]

This forum has been an incredible resource for me. People here are extremely helpful and ready to answer any questions you have at almost anytime. And they are very patient about it. I have never had my head bitten off for asking "obvious" questions or questions that I have come to see in the past several months that everyone has.

No matter how much research you do, you will still have questions, because, not unlike people, chickens are rarely textbook. My favorite thing is there quizzical and comical personalities - that also makes life with them unpredictable, but fun. But, if something goes sideways, be sure to ask.

Your research does make it more likely you will succeed because you care enough to learn before endeavoring to take it on. Kudos! You will rock this!

 

[Birdinhand]

Your anxiety is perfectly natural, it’s a good sign even, that you are a caring person who takes the shepherding of an animal seriously. This forum is very useful for hearing all sorts of applied ideas and their outcomes. You are asking for advice, so I’ll give you mine, but ultimately you will have to carve your own path and make decisions based on your unique situations, priorities and resources.

I would recommend starting right. Being willing to invest some hundreds of dollars into making a truly secure coop. Many people jump into it thinking they can fix a predator problem “if” one arises. Unfortunately, waiting for the problem to develop results in a much bigger problem, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure in this case. The question isn’t if a predator will find your hens, but rather how long it will take. sometimes its years, if you are lucky, but it eventually arises and often befalls your favorite pet or happens at the absolute worse time, leading to anxious nites full of fear that the animal will come back (it often does) and kill more, or you may find yourself watching in horror as one of your precious animal friends suffers a slow and miserable end as you attempt to nurse it.

The key is building the coop with predators in mind. In my experience the common denominator is rats. If you build to keep them out, you’ll keep everything else out. Framing out the coop and enveloping the entire thing with Hardware cloth, 1”x1/2”, well secured to the framing with “u” nails, even across the bottom, before adding the roof and siding will take care of virtually any predator that causes the real issues, be it rat, neighborhood dog, coyotes raccoon. The next most important thing is covering and securing the run. Some folks feel that the loss of life of free ranging is worth it for the improved quality of life. That argument goes both ways, one could say it’s cruel to leave such a defenseless thing as a chicken exposed to the wild. There’s not a correct answer, but I do recommend you be realistic as you think it through. I opt for protection and a large covered run. I have bald eagles, hawks, coyotes, raccoons, possums and neighborhood dogs…and it rains a lot 6 months a year, so secured covered run it is for me, wall to wall hardware cloth. I used to free range, have lost dozens of chickens to predators. Since going Fort Knox on coop design, over 8 years ago, I have not lost a single chicken to predators. So there you have it, some advice, but do what makes sense to you, I don’t expect any two people to raise chickens exactly the same way.

 

[Jakemedic]

In a world full of craziness, this forum is an oasis of endless information on domestic birds. I am a city kid as well, and never handled, let alone raise chickens before April of 2023. We dove in with both feet, good or bad. Our initial flock was and continues to be 12 ladies. We raised them from 1 day old. Last summer was especially hot, we cooled them and gave frozen treats (watermelon and peaches mostly). This winter was historically cold and I brought them oatmeal with cyan and cinnamon in it. We have been caring, friendly and kind to our ladies and they have given us the most amazing eggs. They are delicious! We care for them, talk to them and enjoy the time we spend with them. I genuinely hope you find as much enjoyment out of this forum and your flock as we do.

 

[SourRoses]

I really feel like an animal person is an animal person, period. It's not so much a matter of whether you've had experience with certain animals, but whether you can read animals in general and have empathy for them.

Of course, there are plenty of chicken keepers who have a more old-school economic focused farmer mentality, and for them extensive knowledge and experience is necessary to kind of walk the line of what's practical.
But for those of us modern keepers who consider chickens to be little buddies with fringe benefits, we can learn a lot by being attentive to signs of their contentment or distress. Confidence will come with that in time.

There are a few lessons that are hard learned and bear repeating to save new keepers and their flocks pain...

1. Space. I want to cry sometimes when I see some coop & run setups, just thinking that's their whole lives. It causes social stress that people get used to as "normal chicken behavior", then they never experience how peaceful a flock can be. As a rule of thumb, they should not be hurting each other or complaining all the time unless there are new changes to flock members of something upsetting happening.
And then, even when you get the space right to start with, eventually you end up with more chickens... Then space can become an issue.

2. Hardware cloth. If you don't want birds to die, you use 1/2 inch hardware cloth, period. No chicken wire or whatever else on the coop. Where they sleep at least should be completely protected with hardware cloth. Personally, I take a risk and fashion their yards out of no-climb 2x4 wire fence. Because they can look out for themselves when they're awake it's not such a big deal (depending on environment). But sleep space is always protected with hardware cloth.