Things You Wish You Would Have Known?

[fireredcannon]

I ended up with poison ivy all up and down my arms searching for two silkies that had gone missing one night, eventually found them under the coop and all the crawling around left me quite itchy!

 

[silkiefrizzles]

try to see the parents of the chicks/eggs BEFORE you get them

 

[Coop de Grass]

I haven't read through all the posts, but this is what we're experiencing now. Wish we'd built BEFORE we got chicks. We had plans drawn up, and most all the materials and hardware we needed thinking we'd get it built in a few of days. We'd been talking about it, researching, and planning for a while, and went ahead and bought chicks before we started building. Between work, life, changing our plans because what we'd drawn up didn't work as well as we'd thought, and mother nature, we're on week 2 of trying to get our tractor built. The chicks are ready to be outside!

Not to worry! As soon as you complete the coop, you will realize that you really need a few more chickens. You never have enough, so you are always trying to expand.

 

[Coop de Grass]

I wish I had known about chickens and poison ivy. My chickens walk threw it and i touch them resulting in poison ivy hands.

THanks for the heads up. I haven't done the poison ivy clean up yet, and I've seen a few seedlings here and there. Of course, it is where the girls like to scratch. Hope your hands recover quick!

 

[fireredcannon]

i wish i would have known that TSC pullets look so much like roo's

 

[ChickenJesus]

I wish I would have know how much hatching in winter SUCKS!! the effort to keep them warm, the smell that seeps into the house from the basement is horrific even when changing bedding on a daily basis, the demand in time is significantly greater, and did I mention the smell????

 

[AllynTal]

I wish I would have know how much hatching in winter SUCKS!! the effort to keep them warm, the smell that seeps into the house from the basement is horrific even when changing bedding on a daily basis, the demand in time is significantly greater, and did I mention the smell????

Oh good grief, don't do that. Use a heating pad cave. It takes no effort to keep them warm. You can brood them in the coop, not in the house (yes, even in the winter, even up North), and there shouldn't be a smell. If there is a smell, there's something you're doing that you could be doing better.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/956958/mama-heating-pad-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update

 

[saulsx]

Not to worry! As soon as you complete the coop, you will realize that you really need a few more chickens. You never have enough, so you are always trying to expand.

Well, we're almost done with the tractor and will be putting the chicks out in it over the weekend. We're already talking about getting more!

 

[saulsx]

Oh My! I dont know about you, but there was a time when I let my husband know finishing the coop was urgent! I started thinking they were BIRDS instead of cute little chicks at two weeks old. At week three, it was urgent!
Pooping in water. Escaping brooder, pooping while trying to escape ex pen around brooder, eating like starving vultures, looking at me when I walk in cause I am the FOOD person, running FAST, sitting on a sleeping sisters head, etc. Oh my! The instruction manuel said in the brooder in the house 6-8 weeks. I was actually thinking of doing some cooking!?
Now the darlings are in the coop, but get rammy if they dont get out, which requires chick supervision for a few reasons. They are so much fun, we are already planning an annex to the coop!
Lisa

We've experienced some of the same things. It's gotten urgent. They're real live chickens now! Lesson learned... be better prepared in the future.

 

[Lisa Wood]

We've experienced some of the same things. It's gotten urgent. They're real live chickens now! Lesson learned... be better prepared in the future.

My husband, who is the one who builds all this, says there is no future. I thought it would be fun to have a coop full of Bamtams. But, the coop was done mostly. It was stuff like roosts, makmg it so no predators could get in, etc. We are waiting on the poultry netting. And we made some shade, trying to keep the sun from beaing on the coop. But Thank God, we got them out a week ago Tuesday.
Lisa