Hello from MA and Compiling a Beginner's Checklist?

[Jijibaby]

Hello everyone!
I am a relatively new but learning mother of 14 (11 hens, 3 chicks) chickens, and since I have been learning a lot from this community online I figured it'd be just as well to join it. My feathered friends and I live in the greater Boston area of Massachusetts, so if any other MA residents know of nice little places to get poultry fare (I'm currently bagging everything at a TSC in NH every couple of months) that'd be great.

I'm also just wondering what general chicken-care issues other people have met as they've progressed, especially illnesses, so that way I can get better at stocking up on supplies early on instead of having to run about to get medication at panicked intervals.

In any case, what I've encountered with my chickens over the past year and a half does include:

• Extremely thin egg-shells
• "Fairy" or "Witch" eggs
• Double-yolkers
• Broody hens
• Injured/cut feet
• Bullying...and how some of the birds countered it
• "Training" (more like getting them to recognize certain things/words as either "good" or "bad")
• Giving baths
• Frequent hawks/owls, occasional skunk/possum/fox/dog
• Integrating big hens with little chicks
• Snow/Winter
• Diarrhea/stomach problems (not really sure what it was, but I can describe the symptoms and what I did)
• Choking :/
• Cocci (currently struggling with)

If people have any other things they would recommend newbies at the chicken-tending to prepare for as time goes on, feel free to join in! I'd like to start stockpiling all the medicines beforehand rather than after

 

[redsoxs]

Greetings from Kansas, jijibaby, and

! Great to have you with us! That checklist is a great idea. Your list has snow/cold...I'd add heat to the list as well - I'm pretty sure heat and humidity take more birds each year than cold. Good luck to and your flock!

 

[Tuhmu]

and good luck with your poultry adventure! I can't think of anything else to add to your list at the moment, seems to be pretty narrowed down.

 

[BantamFan4Life]

 

[liz9910]

 

[drumstick diva]

I'd include dealing with neighbors loose dogs/cats