Common chicken pet mistakes?

[Griffin]

Hi you Chicken Lovers!

What a wonderful response - I'm totally blown away guys!

I'd like to thank Guitartists, gritsar, Carolina Chicken Man, bluie, chicknhawaii, bionic_chicken, BJ, aneesasmuse and a2ms4chickens for their additional comments!

Yes . . . !

Guitartists > yes this seems to be a recurring problem!

gritsar > thanks for the welcome! yeah, not getting the coop built/completed before adopting your feathery pets seems to happen more often than not!

Carolina Chicken Man > thanks for the welcome and ditto

bluie > yes . . . predator-proof he coop! Good stuff . . .

chicknhawaii > yes, deciding on what the chicken will be 'used' for!

bionic_chicken > you must have alot of t-shirts!

BJ > ah ha - building a draft free coop . . . and excellent advice to research the bird prior to purchasing - want egg get good layers, gentle chics for kids . . . cool!

aneesasmuse > got pictures of your chickens with diapers on!?

a2ms4chickens > Thanks for the welcome . . . ! Ah yes . . . build the coop larger than you anticipate needing for the chickens, room for the extra chicken or two or three you want and all the offspring!

This is great you guys - I'm lovin' it and I'm learnin' it! Keep the advice and comments coming!

Thanks.

Griffin-

 

[jacyjones]

I live in Wales, UK so do not have the same predator problems as you!! Our main problem is foxes and we have to protect carefully against them. For me that means ensuring the girls are all in off the field at night and shut in their shed.
I agree with most of these postings - make sure you know whether they are pets or livestock from the start. Our first chickens were named by my then small children and they were devastated when the fox took Speckle. After that the ducks are the only ones with names - then it is me in floods of tears if there is a duck disaster!! You need to be prepared to handle losing birds through predators or other things like illness and you need to be tough enough to deal with it. I am getting better after about 10 years but I still get upset.
If you are getting bantams then this may not apply but one thing we learned was if we buy in adult size point of lay pullets we need to clip their wings as soon as they arrive. We bought 5 Black Rocks one time and they roosted up a tree each night instead of using their shed. We were worried about foxes and so had to try and reach them out of the tree in the dark with great difficulty - once wings were clipped this was not a problem!!
Good luck and enjoy your new venture - as you see people get hooked very quickly!!