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

[fishygirl25]

Dealing with the accidental chickens’ deaths that I feel that are my fault even though most were due to lack of knowledge. Also re-homing my two boys really broke my heart.

 

[dfsndc7]

Dust. Chicken dust, feather dust, the post dust bath shake off dust, diatomaceous earth dust, mulch scratch dust, feed scooping dust, sand in the coop dust, pine shavings dust, clean the coop dust, alfalfa hay dust, I keep a mask to do half the tasks. I love everything about them but oh my! there's tons of outdoor /indoor dust.

 

[Shezadandy]

My least favorite part about keeping chickens is that I can't leave town unless my one daughter is home from college to chicken-sit. It's impossible to find chicken-sitters where I live.

LOL If my DH has one complaint about the chickens (and there are always a couple) it's that travel becomes much harder and I'm much less inclined to go anywhere. We're lucky to have a great farm sitter that takes good care of the goats and chickens.

 

[itsmatt]

Manure around the house and on the driveway.

Our flock of 40 egg layers (and some ducks) free range all day - full run of the farm. Routinely I have to scrape/spray down the driveway (it is asphalt) because they end up hanging out in the shade by the garage.

And, yes, I could restrict them from around the house. That's certainly an idea but the manure isn't a deal breaker for me so I just put up with it.

 

[clumberfam]

Chickens are fun to watch and eventually we'll hope for some eggs but oh, my do they stink!!! We have peas as well and oddly enough they don't smell nearly as bad as the chickens. Maybe it's because of what they eat?? Who knows? The peas eat cat food while the chickens get Purina starter/grower as yet. soon to transition to an 'adult' food.

 

[Granny Fixit]

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

My least favorite part? Having a raccoon or the neighbors dog kill one. The heartbreak is so horrible that I find myself being irrationally overprotective (as a mother hen) with the survivors.

 

[Cindosha]

We are still pretty new at chicken keeping (since May) so we haven't had to deal with illness, parasites or death of any of the flock. But I haven't had to trudge out to the coop in the winter. So I suppose i need to hold judgement on that until next spring, LOL!!! The poopy doesn't bother me, I love how the coop looks when I clean the poop off the poop table under the roosting bar. If I had to pick something, I guess it would have to be waiting for the darn things to start laying eggs. I only have one that is laying as of now.

 

[Waves]

Poop is not so beautiful to clean, and it smells but it is acceptable.

Lices are a very bad thing and i hate the idea that they can be so quick in hurting chickens.

Predators are my real nightmare and i have to do a hard work on myself to not be obsessed by the coop closing. "Did i closed well? Were they all inside?" are terrible questions fixed in mind before going to bed!

My real least favourite thing is deal with death. It is an heartbreak losing a chicken for me, if it is a sudden event or if it is a long disease.

 

[jsbugg]

Besides cleaning out poopy bedding in the coop and suffering the loss of a hen, I hate having to sift the sand in the run on a 90+ degree day in the summer. I sift it every 4 to 5 weeks to get debris and uneaten food. Takes me about an hour and a half on a nice weather day but in the high heat takes 3 hours and then my back hurts afterwards!

 

[kurby22]

Poop and flies it brings. We clean coop daily and wash down the grass allot. But those darn flies in the summer months can be quite a pain

I totally agree!! The flies and wasps were awful this year!! I HATE them!