Things you wish you knew before... Add to the Chicken Wisdom list!

[Want Less]

Hindsight is 50/50...

Looking back to before you made the plunge and got your first chicks/chickens... what is something you learned from experience that you wish you had known beforehand? What things about chick raising or chicken keeping surprised you? No matter how simple, complex, silly or serious. Not that these things would have changed your mind or kept you from getting chickens necessarily, but just tidbits of advice you'd pass down that you wish you had known.

I'll start off the list with these:

1. That making your own feeders & waterers are simple and cheap. It's not rocket science.
2. Chickens can get over fences even when their wings are clipped.
3. Hens can be NOISY!
4. Roosters crow at any time of day.

What would YOU add?

 

[ChicknThief]

A rubbermaid bin is NOT sufficient for containing chicks past a week or two!

 

[Kevin565]

No two hatches are going to be exactly the same. What works for one hatch may not work for another.

 

[Henny peeny]

chickens don't grow as fast as you think and they need someplace to be

I didn't have clue with the first time chicks, they don't be ready to kill in 6 weeks and they need a place to live ONCE YOU DECIDE TO KEEP THEM and it is not cheep to build a place that is good enough for them.

Don't get me wrong I love my chickens but the chicks taught me a lot and when I see chicks in tractor supply and the kids asking for a chick I think "You have no clue as to what you are getting into).

I help build the whole place for my chickens and I swore never again but ya know what, yup I would do this again.

Rhayden

 

[chloezoebob101]

I wish i knew that chickens aren't safe just because they are in a pen, things dig under and fly over

 

[thaiturkey]

I wish I'd known more about coops before I built our two.

I wish I'd known that banties are happier roosting in our trees than in the coops!

 

[BusyBlonde]

I wish I had known with my first batch of chicks that they are not as fragile as you will read that they are. I had my latest batch out in the run since they were 3 weeks old during the day when the temperatures were as low as the 50's. They loved it. They are nearly 6 weeks old now, and can't wait for me to open the door to the brooder every morning. They did have access to the brooder and heat lamp if they wanted it, but they rarely went inside except to eat and drink. Hardy little babies! They didn't care that it wasn't 80 degrees.