a question for veteren chicken farmers...

[lambchicks]

If there was one thing you could have known when you were starting out with your first flock of chickens, what would it be?

 

[mfsakc]

I'd have made my coop and run bigger.

 

[dadof4]

Not really a veteren keeper but I would have gone with bigger pens and I would have stuck with one or two breeds. I've got all kinds of stuff!

 

[peeplessinNC]

I'm interested in why you say you would have stuck with only one or two breeds?

 

[patandchickens]

I wish I knew I'd LIKE them so much (my first 3 were just meant as an egg-producing utility, I am SO not a bird person, it did not occur to me there was any chance I would really 'fall for' them. Oops.)

And I wish I knew turkey poults were so much cooler than chicken chicks (am in the process of discovering this now, they are still less than a month old)

Pat

 

[lambchicks]

how are turkey eggs compared to chicken eggs?
or are you raising them for meat?

 

[Chickn chick 46]

Quote:
Yes that! I just got them for their egg producing abilities. Never knew I would actually come to like them so much.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

i would have been more brave about getting more chickens and allowing the broody hens to raise their own babies - much much easier than trying to brood them myself

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
These 3 are for meat (they're commercial bronzes, really can't keep them long term all that well); but next year I am pretty sure I will get one or two actual 'breeds' of turkey, the idea being to produce some for the oven while having them also be fun ornaments

I don't think their eggs are much use except for generating more turkeys, they supposedly do not lay very many of them (short laying season).

Pat

 

[cherig22]

I would have made sure that I built my coops and runs as I was going along, I want to seperate the breeds and I have too many. I am frantically building them to accomodate.

In other words, know what your goals are. Eggs for eating, purebred eggs for selling, etc.

Cheri