What information do you wish you had known starting out?

[Arielle]

Tiny chicks grow FAST and there fore need a lot of space. And they enjoy jumping on and over toys. Use a colorful dish to serve extras. Play with the chicks if you want them to be friendly. We made the brooder big enough to set in and let them come to visit us, then started picking them up after a week old. DId not want to stress out the chicks.

Use vinegar in the water to stop the slime. 1 table spoon per gal of water both white and cider works.

Babies waste a LOT of feeed provide feeders that prevent scratching out the feed. THey don't clean up the spilled feed.

Buy quality chicks. NPIP tested flocks. Too easy to bring home a bird carrying something when the chick doesn't look ill. ANd then quarentine always.30 days

CHicken math is a real diseasel LOL THe more space for fewer birds the better. Rainy days keep them in. ANd snow. SO allow enough coop space for those days. Or cover part of the run.

Have fun teaching!!

 

[Chemguy]

There are a LOT of diseases associated with poultry, but most of these are unlikely if good management practices are followed.

Chickens will eat anything. This is good, and it can be bad.

There are a lot of questions that I am asked fairly consistently, and the answers to these are:

a hen lays one egg per day at best
you do not need a rooster to have eggs.
eggs are not fertile if there is no rooster in the flock.
there are many sayings that are related to chickens: pecking order, cooped up, being 'chicken,' coming home to roost
chickens will live for several years, but hens will decrease laying over time
most backyard chcickens are not organic, nor are their eggs.
Eggs are like snowflakes, no two are exactly alike; size and shape can vary
chickens have individual personalities. Some are noisy, some are quiet. Some are personable, some are flighty.

Happy teaching!

 

[Ole rooster]

I would say facilities. Knowing now what I didn't then, just to know more are to come. Some have to be separated and some have to be quarantined. Just to have enough places to be able to keep them all up and keep me comfortable in mind.

 

[damselfish]

Red lamp seems to keep them calmer than a white lamp.

Have your coop ready before chicks get there. I see a few posts on here: "Oh, I got these cute chickens, now what will I do with them?" That's not kind to the chickens.

Brooding them in the house is cute to me for about three days. After that, they need to go somewhere that dust is not a problem.

Do not be afraid to separate poorly behaved chicks.

Chicks do peck. At you, at their toes, at each other. Remember, they can't ask questions and they don't have fingers. Their beak is a tool for exploring. Now, if they start to hurt each other, see the above.

You need more space than you think and fewer nestboxes than you think!

That's all I have offhand.

 

[braindead101]

Build your coop to accommodate what you want to have. Don't plan for what you will start with, chicken math dictates that you will have more and adding to a coop is harder than building to size now.

 

[Time-Out]

Talk about good mite prevention, ie. Coats of paint inside the coop etc.

I went on a chicken course hoping to learn loads I couldn't find... well... let's just say I learnt more on this forum, and it's all free.

 

[ragerkid2]

If just brooding I small number of chicks, use 1 quart waters instead of 1 gal.. So much easier. Less spill and more room for chicks. Easier to clean as well. And the plastic gal jugs at TSC always seem to leek. Keep raising the food water as the birds grow.

 

[OldGuy43]

I know that this isn't quite what you asked, but I would have liked to have known how much more money I could be making with ducks. I don't even have any yet and I've already been offered $1.00/egg. Apparently they're hard to find around here. I would have started with ducks.

 

[stcroixusvi]

Build your coop to accommodate what you want to have. Don't plan for what you will start with, chicken math dictates that you will have more and adding to a coop is harder than building to size now.

You can always build a second coop!

 

[Clay Mudd]

You can always build a second coop!

and a third, and maybe a tractor or two, and...

Something that I found out after I'd bought all the equipment (and wish I'd already known) was to be sure to not go cheep on the brooder light and get one that has a ceramic socket! I didn't realize that a 200 watt bulb could melt a plastic socket if it's left on as long as we'll need to for the chicks.

+1. And after I was proud of myself for learning that, this year I found out about the Brinsea brooders that are so much easier to deal with!

Anybody want to buy some heat lamps?