Things You Wish You Would Have Known?

[Husker Chick]

The size of coop & run. We were careful to build the run and coop to "minimum" sq. ft. guidelines; however, these are "minimum" guidelines. Now that they are in it, I feel it's too small. I've been letting them free range every afternoon, and they go running (and flying) at every chance. They don't like being cooped (ha-ha) up in a small run. Go as big as you can.

 

[crealbilly]

Yes! Never wear anything flashy in the coop. Different shoes, Jeans that have strings hanging off, pants with paint on them. Never 

Love this thread by the way! 

I tried to tell my wife this before she went into the chicken yard in flip flops and painted toe nails. She came out of the yard pretty quick shouting "they attacked my toes" -:lol

 

[ChocolateMouse]

That a lot of advice needs to be taken with a grain of salt. :/ I tried to do a lot of research and it left me so spooked I kind of put a lot more into the birds in the wrong ways.

That chickens can and will eat meat. Including chicken meat. (falls into some of the not so good advice I've been given) Including from birds that they kill as intruders. Basically they are natural hunters and natural cannibals and that's a sort of normal for them. Just give all your chickens the compost and move on.

That they would eat tomato plants even though they are "toxic" to chickens and supposedly taste bad. (Part of the first again)

That they are incredibly hardy and if they are healthy they will survive just about anything with a little TLC (again....)

That NPIP is cheap, responsible, and the legal requirement for shipping hatching eggs across the USA.It's worth getting it done and supporting NPIP breeders even if it's just a hobby.

And maybe it's not what I wish I'd known, but I wish other people knew to be prepared to CULL YOUR BIRDS for contagious illness or severe injury. I know too many stories of people who keep their chickens in terrible shape, slowly dying from conditions like Mareks or bad predator injuries that they're not likely to recover from, hanging on by a thread, and refuse to cull because they are "pet" chickens and just "love" them too much so they let their bird or whole flock slowly suffer and die. This is so really unfair and cruel to the birds IMO and especially in the case of contagious diseases, unfair to other flocks in the area. Really bad multi-state multi-billion dollar outbreaks of diseases can often come from back yard flocks. I wish people realized that if we culled hard for contagious conditions that they could be eliminated.

Take biosecurity and disease management seriously.

 

[harley587]

1. Biosecurity
2. Biosecurity
3. Biosecurity
4. Although I wasn't able to get the breed I wanted, I fell in love (and hard) with the breed I have!! I have Silver Laced Wyandottes and they are the best!! (take that with a grain of salt since it is the only breed I have ever had!)
5. Cancel cable tv, chicken tv is addicting and so much more fun!
6. poop is EVERYWHERE!
7. Get a good pair of muck boots that never ever go inside your house!!
8. Ask questions, always and no matter how insignificant you may think the question is.

Hmmmm, that's all I can think of for the moment.

9. Oh yeah! My chickens are cannibals, they will eat chicken out of my salads!

 

[LocalYokel]

That you can't have just 30 or so.

And that house roosters are perfectly acceptable

 

[Phill98]

Not just roosters have fights, hens fight too.

Chicks are a lot stronger that you think .

Some things that work out with other people doesn't have to mean that it would work for you too, but they can so you should try everything out but be ready for change.

Make your coop and run bigger not because of chicken math but because both hens and you will be happier with bigger space for various reasons.

Chicken math is a thing, but it doesn't HAVE to be.

They destroy everything green.

 

[Jensownzoo]

Get your chicken medical kit together ASAP (preferably before getting chicks) and stock it well. It's inevitable that the chick(en) will pick a time to get sick/injured when all the stores that sell poultry supplies are closed.

My kit includes: poultry Nutri-drench, poultry Vetericyn spray, blue-kote, Corid, oxytetracycline powder, terramycin ophthalmic ointment, various sizes of syringes, gauze pads, vet wrap bandaging, bandaids, ProBios powder, q-tips, oxine, electrolyte powder, tweezers, styptic powder, olive oil, chemical hand-warmers.

I probably need to add a dewormer and a treatment for lice/mites too...

 

[Kate K]

Can I ask why no more Prod reds? I currently have two out of fourteen...just a 1 yr old. Does something happen Sorry meant to quote Mary)

 

[Jaromo99]

I started out deciding that I'd get 3. 3 would be the "perfect number". Apparently, other people wanted the same breeds. When Dunlap opened the first day they had buff orpingtons, I stood in the hatchery waiting for my buffs for almost an hour, that is, before they sold out of the 3,000 6 hour old chicks they hatched. So I ended up buying 5 Easter Eggers. Totally makes sense. I went back two days later, and got 2 barred rocks and a black sex link to replace the one EE that died. Ahhh, chicken math. Suddenly that 6 chicken coop doesn't work. So we made another coop for 10 hens. Then, of course, I ended up getting 2 BO hens, since I didn't get any to begin with. Right? Then I traded my quail for 3 Australorp hens. Then I found a serama hen at a shelter, and I somehow managed to integrate the little brat into the flock. The the school was re-homing chicks they hatched, and I took the hurt one. I had to get her a buddy, so I went and picked up a chick from Dunlap's last BO hatch. Then the hurt one died. Then of COURSE I needed to get another, so I go back and they have the first ever Silver link hatch from the hatchery. Now I need a new coop, and I won't be able to build one till the end of June. Luckily the pullets are still small.

In short, chicken math will go from 3 BO pullets to 2 BO hens, 1 BO pullet, 3 Australorp hens, 4 EE pullets, A Black Sex Link pullet, a Silver Sex Link pullet, A BR pullet, a BR rooster, and a Serama hen.

 

[Kate K]

Learning the very hard way that predator protection is serious business! Being lucky at first before getting serious about biosecurity. No more production reds in any form! How beautiful and entertaining chickens can be, and how there's never enough room for all the interesting varieties! Mary

What happened with your Production reds?? Curious to know what 'Im in for ??