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

[InterestingChickens]

I don't mind cleaning out, I feel like a have achieved at the end.

My least favourite part about keeping chickens is bumblefoot. It has really been a struggle to get to this point, where it's nearly healed.

 

[Sally PB]

I look at the poop as the "other" reason to have chickens: Poop for the garden! So when I clean it up, I'm thinking about the rich soil it will help build.

I had to cull two unruly cockerels. That was the worst thing I had to deal with. I haven't had a serious illness (yet), but I know that will be hard for me. Having to decide if/when to put a bird down is the pits.

 

[K0k0shka]

Finding out my favorite chick is a cockerel

 

[EmmaRainboe]

Death/illness is by far the hardest part. I only have about 1/10 of the amount of birds my coop could comfortably hold, so the poop really isn't that bad.

But the stress, anxiety, and heartbreak from lose and illmess is practically unbearable.

 

[Iluveggers]

Although cleaning up poo and coops isn't the funniest thing, my LEAST favorite thing about keeping chickens is having a limit on how many I can keep!

It's not that I can't keep more on our 15 acres, it's just that I know I'll have to add more coops and having more than 100-120 chickens seems overwhelming... it's so hard not to keep chicks or introduce new breeds! Lol

I picked other for the same reason! So many breeds I’d love to get.
Also there are some beautiful chickens I can’t get because they are not cold hardy. I wish I could get one or two of every breed!

 

[Gizabelle]

The poop minefield at the front door, walkway along with the grass and dirt they kick up on it lol 100 birds and they want to hang out around the porch all day.

Oh my! I thought I had it bad with 9 that want to hang out on the back steps.

 

[DobieLover]

Hands down: death of the birds. I feel too strongly and get attached to the birds the more I interact with them in a one on one basis. That is usually when they have some issue that requires extra attention.
When I decided to get chickens I had this crazy notion that we'd harvest the hens when they were in their second or third year and replace them with new pullets. Yeah, right. My older girls are my favorites! I'm most attached to them.
As for the poop, I'm a weirdo. I love cleaning the boards every morning and composting the load. My veggie garden is absolutely amazing!

 

[ElimAcres]

I love caring for my chickens/animals but I hate having to get all bundled up in the winter and go out in the cold to do so.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

Chicken math, the subtraction part of it in particular. We all know that having too many cockerels/roosters is going to be problematic at one point or another. Having to figure out how to keep peace in the flock is difficult sometimes. If all of the cockerels grow into well behaved respectful roosters, I find it impossible to select who goes and who stays. We certainly cannot let our pullets and hens be abused, overmated, injured, etc, so subtraction is a MUST. My personal answer is to have roosters free ranging during the day, but making sure all of the boys get along isn't always easy either, even free ranging.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I...
[ ] Deep Litter
[ ] Have an abundance of space
[ ] Use an Electric Fence (and a loss or several doesn't cost me much)
[ ] Maintain a closed flock in a remote area
[ ] Use the rainfall (1"/wk average) to keep a 275 gal tote water filled
[ ] Leave the run doors open more often than not, and only close the coop for hurricanes (Cat 2+)
[ ] Enjoy chicken dinners
[ ] Yup, this is the one*
[ ] Chances are, i caused it. With a sharp knife.

* I dislike gathering cu yds of leaf litter a couple times a year to fill the hen houses and throw in the run - particularly in summer, when there isn't much leaf litter on the ground, its hot, and its stupid humid.

Otherwise, the flock is low maintenance.