Things You Wish You Would Have Known?

[RodBrandt]

That if you buy birds from an auction or swap, you have to be prepared that you've increased your chances of bringing diseases home with you.

That depending what your birds catch, depopulateing might be your only option, especially if you want to bring in new birds.

That hen to rooster ratios are a real thing, pay heed to them especially in a closed environment where the hens can't get away.

That hawks will try to steal your babies from literally right in front of you.

We experienced that, too. My wife had her chickens in a chicken tractor in the yard while cleaning the coop. She heard commotion and "screaming" and turned to see a large blackish/gray bird draped around the tractor, just 20 feet from her. She had a tough time shooing it away. We learned later it was an adolescent bald eagle. (Everyone survived!)

 

[RodBrandt]

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

 

[chickrunfun]

1. We now have a "chicken channel" in our yard, as they are so much fun to watch.
2. They think our yard is their personal salad, so we may have to put a fence around our perennial garden, rather then pen the chickens in.
3. They poop everywhere, and a lot!
4. It's hard to "tame" chicks that we got at 8 weeks old, from a breeder.
5. They can be finicky eaters, and don't always like the "people food" you would expect.
6. They periodically need their flight feathers clipped, or they really could fly over our fence 6' high.

2. Thanks to our chickens....with help from our 2 dig crazed hound dogs...the "human part" of our yard is naked of grass. The vegie garden was practically eaten to the grown in 1 day by ravenous locus-like chickens and my wife's 10 x 6 ft daisy patch that was started with 1 clipping on mother's day...is a memory. All ornamental anything and everything planted on the OUTSIDE of the chicken yard...disappeared a little more day by day by them pocking heads through the fence.
3. We now have a shoe swapping station just before you go up the ramp to our front door so you can get out of your "chicken shoes" and into your "clean shoes"

 

[chickenlindz]

1. There is no such thing as building too big. You will eventually run out of space
2. Chickens can't do math and don't adhere to the sq ft rules... I have 2 coops yet all the chickens (except 3) squeeze into a single coop.
3. There is such a thing as nice roosters
4. I finally found out what to do with all the cherry tomatoes I grow
5. Trying to find young chicks in a coop full of adults is a real life version of "Where's Waldo"
6. I wish I had started sooner

 

[5Sons Coop]

If you are going to "give chickens a try" and have the space. Build a small building (8'x8' is my fav size) and plan to use it for a garden shed or something, if chickens do not workout. Also keep everything "petting zoo" clean, just in case you need to use that building for a storage shed. Soon you will have an overall euphoric addiction that can be shared but not explained to, of all things, a chicken....a low on the food chain...sometimes smelly....worm eating chicken. You will love everyone and have dreams of free range commercial expansion.......oh I am drifting off topic and digress. "Petting Zoo" clean is a big one. I set my coop in a low point thinking litter will build up and fill it in. I built on skids so I could move or raise it. While pretitor proofing and a garden slowly sliding into the coop over numerous years has caused issues. You crack that deep litter open layer by layer and it is enough to gag a maggot! Leave it alone and all is good expect when it rains a lot. So here I am selling eggs and just getting into hatching, people stopping by to pick up eggs...soon chicks, birds, hatching eggs and some know nothing of keeping birds or deep litter. They do know what a typical very well kept clean animal pen looks like.

2. Do not over research. Problem solving is my favorite part and if you are ever panicked, toldly lost research your answer here on BYC, very quickly you will find your answer. If you require interaction with the rest of the world, are bored or need a warm hug post a question and hang on to your pitch fork because it will come layer by layer by layer

 

[Jensownzoo]

Not so much "wish I had known" as "delighted to find out" but chickens get zoomies just like cats and dogs if yoi give them them space to do so!

 

[AllynTal]

2. Thanks to our chickens....with help from our 2 dig crazed hound dogs...the "human part" of our yard is naked of grass. The vegie garden was practically eaten to the grown in 1 day by ravenous locus-like chickens and my wife's 10 x 6 ft daisy patch that was started with 1 clipping on mother's day...is a memory. All ornamental anything and everything planted on the OUTSIDE of the chicken yard...disappeared a little more day by day by them pocking heads through the fence.
3. We now have a shoe swapping station just before you go up the ramp to our front door so you can get out of your "chicken shoes" and into your "clean shoes"

Yes! Yes! I forgot that one.

House shoes for inside the house, "clean" shoes for leaving the yard, and "chicken" shoes for being in the yard because walking around the yard is the same as being in the coop.

And I wished I'd known how much my dog was going to love licking chicken poo off the ground. Not that I could do anything about it; just would have been nice to be warned ahead of the first lickylickylick.

 

[chickrunfun]

Yes! Yes! I forgot that one.

House shoes for inside the house, "clean" shoes for leaving the yard, and "chicken" shoes for being in the yard because walking around the yard is the same as being in the coop.

And I wished I'd known how much my dog was going to love licking chicken poo off the ground. Not that I could do anything about it; just would have been nice to be warned ahead of the first lickylickylick.

OH MY GAWSH! That's is so gross that dogs do that!! I still forget to check the yard sometimes and have to run down dogs once I catch eyes on them going for it, and they seriously go for it...like pop corn!

 

[AllynTal]

If you are going to "give chickens a try" and have the space. Build a small building (8'x8' is my fav size) and plan to use it for a garden shed or something, if chickens do not workout. ...

Good point! And if you do build, use treated wood for the bottom plate of the walls because it will get wet and it will get pooped on. There are plenty of free shed plans on the web that can easily be adapted to be a coop.

And if at all possible, have a coop you can stand up in or otherwise be able to stand up while cleaning. It gets really wearisome really fast when you have to bend over and hunch down to clean the coop.

 

[Shezadandy]

Oops I forgot that one.
I wish I had thought about any house sitter and what it meant for chickens - before I had chickens and a vacation planned

Yes!!! We were lucky to find one that would take on the goats, chickens and cats for those rare times we're actually away.

Try to always make it easy to take care of your chickens. 30lb hanging feeders, filled before you leave and a multi-gallon easy to fill watering system. Eggs should be the fun part, depending on how many chickens - I tell our farm sitter to take however many eggs she can use.

Also a coop door with a timer. Asking someone to arrive at a specific time range in the evening for ONE visit (to make sure nobody gets locked out for the night) is a lot less to ask than dictating exact time twice a day to open and close the coop. Folks that do this need some flexibility to work in all their animal clients who are spread over however many miles.