ShanandGem
Songster
- Feb 16, 2016
- 721
- 194
- 141
I'm completely new to chicken keeping, but did a ton of research before picking up my chicks. These are a few things that I didn't know or expect:
1. They would always prefer to scratch around to find their food to eating it out of a dish.
2. From about a week old on, they will spill their water or fill it with bedding, almost hourly.
3. They try to fly the moment they start to get wing feathers. Get a lid on those brooders, or at least make sure they can get back in!
4. Talk to your chicks. The sound of my voice wakes them up in the morning before I turn on the coop light. When I am outside calling dogs they peep for me.
5. Directional skills? Not so much. Mine frequently get stuck around the side of the brooder. They figure it out eventually, but it takes longer than it should.
6. Mine prefer me to come in from below rather than above ie: they like having their chests rubbed, not being picked up or backs stroked.
Can anyone else remember learning something by experience their first time around?
Edited to add: 7. Their crops are alarmingly full at bedtime.
1. They would always prefer to scratch around to find their food to eating it out of a dish.
2. From about a week old on, they will spill their water or fill it with bedding, almost hourly.
3. They try to fly the moment they start to get wing feathers. Get a lid on those brooders, or at least make sure they can get back in!
4. Talk to your chicks. The sound of my voice wakes them up in the morning before I turn on the coop light. When I am outside calling dogs they peep for me.
5. Directional skills? Not so much. Mine frequently get stuck around the side of the brooder. They figure it out eventually, but it takes longer than it should.
6. Mine prefer me to come in from below rather than above ie: they like having their chests rubbed, not being picked up or backs stroked.
Can anyone else remember learning something by experience their first time around?
Edited to add: 7. Their crops are alarmingly full at bedtime.
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