bad or half-baked chicken advice you've received?

[frostbite]

"Some statements are just too broad-sweeping in this thread. Many should be qualified by "it depends". Not all statements are true all the time for all chicken keepers, all breeds, all situations, etc, etc. Things can become a bit trickier when dealing with living creatures as opposed to machines."

Thanks, Speckled Hen, I agree. Living creatures and living systems are incredibly complex.

 

[Daisy8s]

Advice against free ranging or feeding compost are my favorites in my personal "bad advice" category. Free ranging is healthier in the context that chickens are allowed to make choices as they move around their environment, thus exhibiting natural behaviors. Free ranging is also healthier if it provides chickens with more access to bugs/worms/mice/frogs than they'd have access to in a contained run. Which brings me to the next bit of bad advice I just cannot understand.

"Anything other than a commercial diet will cause an imbalance and deficiency." For the life of me I cannot figure out how a varied diet is a bad thing. My chickens have full access to all the compost they want and they move around between the compost pile, free ranging for bugs, and the commercial feed that is always available. They're healthy, vigorous, and laying quite well on this diet.

Right on the heels of the "commercial diet only" advice is the requirement to provide grit and oyster shell. But...my free ranging chickens get grit from the gravel and calcium from greens. I understand not everyone has the space or set-up to safely free range their chickens and so it's great these additives are available for purchase. But, just because commercial additives are around does not make them superior to what may already be available to chickens in their natural environment.

I sometimes wonder why people who only want to feed their chickens feed from a store are even raising chickens--why not just buy your eggs and meat from the grocery store since apparently that's where the only good stuff comes from? (Don't mean to sound sarcastic--I'm genuinely puzzled here.)

 

[Beekissed]

I agree! It's very much cheaper to buy eggs and chicken meat from the store if one is using commercial methods to raise their layers and broilers. The commercial growers can do it cheaper and provide a cheaper end product on the same feeds and methods, so why not just cut through all the work and worry and let them do it?

If one is following USDA guidelines on poultry husbandry(proper feed rations, biosecurity, disease prevention~that's a laugh, and treatment), these are designed for commercial growers and not backyard flocks...and will yield a product that is identical to the commercial grower's product, so why bother to grow your own?

 

[frostbite]

I'm getting chickens as a hobby. So for me, the fact that it will be cheaper to continue to buy my eggs at the store than it is to remodel a playhouse into a coop and run, purchase chicks, feed them for months, and then collect eggs, even while I continue to have to purchase feed for the chickens...

You get the drift. I like critters. The eggs will be a bonus. I'm not deceiving myself that this is economical for me.

My birds will probably only get to free range when I'm home and able to keep an eye on them. We have owls and hawks and eagles and ravens and foxes and coyotes and wolves and bears and lynx and weasels and roaming dogs and cats.

As if chickens weren't complex enough, the environments and the people and what they do with their chickens is apparently an incredibly diverse subject.

 

[Beekissed]

As if chickens weren't complex enough

That right there is the biggest problem with the half-baked advice on this forum....chickens are ridiculously easy to keep. There isn't much complexity in keeping chickens at all, merely in wading through all the nonsense and finally realizing that anybody can raise a chicken successfully with relative ease if they just use common sense and listen to a few old timers, try it on for size and make adjustments as you go along. Just like any other enterprise involving animals, it's a learn as you go prospect....but the learning curve is so incredibly easy that a child can master it.​

 

[frostbite]

Sorry, I disagree. It may be simple raising chickens, compared to some other animals, but I have a healthy respect for the ability of animals to surprise me. The fact that either a chicken or a horse or a person can even exist, let alone have a personality and a curiosity is a miracle to me, and the more I learn about them, the more I enjoy them. The main reason even a child can learn to care for a chicken or train a horse is that children are brilliant, and they learn quickly when they are motivated by a genuine interest. They're pretty remarkable creatures themselves.

On the other hand, I've seen poor outcomes from people who purchase a pet animal and bring it home expecting it to be easy, and getting blind sided by the fact that they aren't machines, and they have needs and instincts. We have a dog that was adopted out by the local pound three times, and returned three times, because of owner issues, not dog issues. We have him now, and he's a wonderful dog. But people often assume things are too easy, and don't bother to prepare for reality.

Not saying you have to have a degree in veterinary medicine to raise chickens. But I have really enjoyed the learning curve, and I expect to continue to enjoy it once the birds have arrived.

 

[Beekissed]

You could be right...that is one of those qualifiers. To someone of normal intelligence and with the ability to learn, raising chickens should be very easy. Easy is one of those terms that are a matter of perspective, I know, but anyone can understand clean feed, water, shelter, safety and observation. If they cannot, then I would say that raising chickens would be a difficult matter....of course, raising anything at that level of understanding would be difficult.

Easy is also one of those terms that mean many things to many people. Some people are used to "hard" tasks in life, so raising chickens are incredibly easy work. Those not used to problem solving or physical activity might find raising chickens "hard" as opposed to "easy".

So...you are correct. It's relative.

 

[frostbite]

Most excellent reply, Beekissed! I agree. It comes down to finding common definitions sometimes, doesn't it?

Bless you, and may your chickens continue to thrive!

 

[angie3881]

Quote:
Great. That's why I didn't get a duck. I had no place to keep him away from the chick starter. He was going to be a chicken at my place... the person selling them at the farm store told me the chick starter would kill it. Guess I should have looked further into it.

 

[N&MSchroeder]

Quote:
Yes, I have a friend who believes this! She told me about feeding brown eggs to her brother who was visiting her. He commented that he didn't like the brown eggs and preferred white. She then proceeded to tell him how white eggs are actually bleached and only come from "cruelly raised" factory farms.

I have since included a few white eggs in the carton when I give her eggs. (Not sure if she eats them and she probably believes that I drop them in a bucket of bleach to soak)

My favorite misinformation came from when we were building our chicken coop. I had read not to place the perches too high (preferably about 2 feet) since the birds could be injured when they jumped down. We have two sheds; one with an 8-9 foot high dividing wall and the other with an upper shelf area at approximately this same height. Guess where they all try to perch?

I have a bantam rooster who flies back and forth over our 6 foot fence and yesterday my husband watched one of our leghorns fly from the top of the wall, across the barn, and out the open window into the run without pause. Even my heaviest chickens want to roost as high as they possibly can.