List Your Top 3 Mistakes............

[patandchickens]

1) not getting chickens sooner, then
2) getting chickens too soon, i.e. before coop was built, and
3) not getting more chickens, or building coop larger

More seriously, I'd say

1) getting started pullets via feed store. It just never occurred to me, tho it should've, they'd come debeaked. Mind, they seem to do just fine, but still.

2) trying to put an asphalt-shingled 3/4" plywood roof on an already barely-moveable tractor. Ended up taking it off (can barely lift just the roof without help!) and completely replacing it, urgh.

3) planning to use electric fencing to predator-proof tractor in our backyard, and indeed spending almost $200 buying electronet and charger, without stopping to think "is there anywhere I can actually stick in a ground rod that won't screw up my phone reception etcetera?" And of COURSE, there's nowhere right around the house that's far enough from buried utility lines to do it. Sigh. (Plan B: next year get more chickens, build large tractor for hawkproofing, and use the portable elctric fence stuff to house chickens in the front horsepasture.)

OTOH I have only got 3 chickens and only had them for 5 months, and I am confident that I have bijillions of much bigger mistakes ahead of me

Pat

 

[peacebird]

1. Letting my son change the tractor design I wanted into a non-movable permanent 4 ft cube coop with run.

2. Not sufficiently securing the run to prevent coons from getting in, and peeps from getting out.

3. Ordering my pullets from the feed store - they never got in the RIR or Dominique or Buff Orp gals I ordered, so I ended up with the Triplets. Three of the homeliest RedSexLinks on eacrth - made even homelier by the fact the store clipped their beaks.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
LOL - same here!! Marigold's tail and rump angle 45 degrees to the left; Maryanne has only one single tail feather, and Mathilda (aka 'the other chicken' since for a long time we kept forgetting what name we'd settled on for her name) is just completely nodescript and generic.

But they are smart and friendly and mildly trainable, and have been known to give me *five* eggs within 12 hours, so, I'm happy with them

Pat

 

[PeiTheCelt]

1.) Not trusting nature enough and having to "check" if the eggs were fertile when I couldn't see anything candling (RIP little one, I'm still sorry).

2.) Trying to CATCH Shiva his first day out, he was fine, he came home, but that chase has definitely made bonding that much harder between he and I.

3.) Forgetting to buy marbles for the brood box waterer. :'(

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

1. Staying up too late one night bidding on fertile hatching egg auctions on ebay - and winning them all.

2. Not thoroughly thinking through the coop and run design, nor accurately estimating how many chickens i would eventually want to have - so now i have a mish mash of added-onto kennels and hutches and tarps which look like Chicken Shantytown.

3. Not getting all my chickens at one time so they grow up together, thereby avoiding the necessity of running out to the pen every 10 minutes to break up teeny fights, or having to keep four different hutches/pens to gain an ounce of peace.

 

[NewGuineaChooks]

1. Trusting a 6 week old to take care of itself free-ranging the house (indoor pet). It got trampled by a family member dashing down the stairs. :-(

2. Expecting the flock to 'learn' after 6 attacks, that they should range the acre of yard that *doesn't* contain dogs.

3. Letting meatbirds free-range under coconut trees. They don't have fast enough reflexes to get out of the way of falling coconuts.

 

[ivan3]

Not replacing all cobble borders of flower beds with at least twenty pound stone/pavers (after the chooks and turks flipped out the little stuff we took the hint).

Not using welded wire fencing from the get-go (predators? lots, but a deer took out turkey run chicken wire fencing - didn't even slow down).

Well, most of our mistakes have been the result of our initial ignorance of the fact that imprinting can sometimes be mutual...

Letting meatbirds free-range under coconut trees. They don't have fast enough reflexes to get out of the way of falling coconuts.

(and here I was worried about Hedgeballs falling from the Osage Oranges!! Holy Cwap!!)​

 

[Chicki_Pooh]

So far I don't have any real regrets, just a few things I would've done a little differently had I known better.

1. Getting chicks before we had proper waterers, feeders, brooder, coop, etc. (They were given to me as a b-day present by my BF. Best present & pets I've had thus far).

2. I would have put them in the coop sooner than waiting until they were 4 or 5 weeks old. 4 wk. old chicks are too restless to stay in their cardboard box-brooder all night. Plus the BF didn't like waking up to chicken poo on the laundry room floor in the morning.

3. I would have only given them the back half of our backyard for free-ranging instead of the whole thing. Everytime you step outside the back door you have a 50% chance of stepping in chicken poop.

 

[Siddonzo]

I lurked on this site for 6 months before my chicks came, so I saved myself many mistakes - my thanks to all of you for your good advice. Still.....

1) My coop wasn't ready when I got the chicks. It took much longer (and some nagging) to get it done by the time they were 6 weeks. They could have gone in much earlier.

2) The little feeder with holes fills up with shavings faster than anything. I would have gotten a hanging feeder much sooner.

3) I would not have named my delightful roosters (12 of them) before having them "processed" ($20 for all). I cried all day. Dang chickens.

 

[Zenbirder]

1. underestimating
2. underestimating
3. underestimating


1. I underestimated by 10X the amount of money and time it would take for a coop that met with our standards of acceptability when I said "yes I have decided I would like to have some chickens". I don't regret building the coop but I should have estimated costs and labor a lot better beforehand.

2. I underestimated how much time I would devote to the chickens. Not because of how much time it takes to actually meet their needs, but because I really enjoy spending time bonding with them, learning about them, observing them throughout the day, being on this site as a result of having them... It does eat up time I used to spend on other things.

3. I underestimated how many chickens I would want to have. I want MORE!!!!! I now have limitations on how many I can have because of the size of my hen house to keep them safe at night. I free range so I could have many more if I had built a bigger house. My DH would argue loudly that this is not a mistake but a great boundry limit for me. I didn't make the mistake of getting all the chicks the house would hold the first time around, so I do get to get some more next year, just not as many as I want.