Official BYC Poll: What Is Your Least Favorite Thing About Keeping Chickens?

[LizzzyJo]

Oh yes! Having to choose between having a garden and having chickens. Obvi, the chooks won.

Chicken wire around my 1/4 acre garden keeps them out!

 

[LizzzyJo]

I really hate dealing with our broody hens. We have one who has been broody since May and hasn't shown signs of stopping, I tried a bunch of things but eventually just let her sit.

Give her some hatching eggs I love it when by broodies hatch. I keep them fully incorporated, so it's no difference to me.

 

[Weeg]

I chose clanging out bedding, and other.
I also hate dealing with a bad setup. Having a good setup is key to keeping chickens, for your sake, and preventing disease etc as well. Thats about it, one easily fixable problem, the only issue is time.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Chicken wire around my 1/4 acre garden keeps them out!

The 1/4 acre (or so) former garden is now their run. We don't mind. We're not really gardeners any more anyway.

 

[RoosterWhisperer]

My worst issue is getting attached and then losing them....

Plus when you have 50+ the maintenance gets so tiring. I'm also getting tired of flighty breeds and having to clip their wings.

 

[RoosterWhisperer]

Death, that is my least favourite part of keeping chickens. Even if you didn’t have an attachment to the chicken you lost it’s just heartbreaking listening to your others chickens cry out for them. It’s even worse when one of your mother hens loses her child and then they sit around crying for them.

I know how you feel! .

 

[Hensintexas]

Yup. I kick mine off at the door and they go in a boot tray. I just tracking the stuff into the house yard because the dog already eats deer and rabbit poop when he finds it.

Eww! Yuck, yep!

 

[ChickenShenanigans]

Dealing with extra roosters - it's so exciting when a hen goes broody, and all those adorable babies hatch out, then eventually, realizing the 30-50% rooster rate...

EXACTLY!!!!

 

[Martaals]

I was really shocked how quickly one of our hens went from looking ill to being dead, in only a few hours. We did get to the vet the day after for an autopsy, and her intestants had stuck together, not really sure why.

I also voted other:
1: broody hens who refuse to give up (but our eggs are not fertilized )
2: alternative nests (like underneath the stingy bushes)

 

[MTKitty]

I was really shocked how quickly one of our hens went from looking ill to being dead, in only a few hours....

Prey animals are like that. To show weakness means predators target them first. So, the rule is: Hold out as long as you can because when you can’t hold out any more, you’re done.