What do you wish you had known before you got your chickens

[patmick]

We now call Begonia Biggie. He is a good roo, a Plymouth Rock. Looks after his hens protectively. Mable (Mabe) just got mean, harassing the younger chickens and attacked my husband a couple times. Mabe is no longer with us. Chloe (now Clovis) is still little. We got 3 sets of chickens about 6 weeks apart so they are maturing differently. I am hoping Clovis will have Buffy and Abby for his hens and Biggie will stick with Hattie and Flossie then adopt Gretchen and Hilde. No way of making that happen without building a separate pen.
They are so entertaining. A lot calmer now, though without mean Mabel.

 

[Chickadee55]

We built what we thought was a sturdy coop with a dirt floor that was covered in 1/2" conveyor belt under pine shavings. There is plenty of ventilation and a clean-out door under the roost. I was very naive. It might keep out bears but nothing is keeping out the rats.I have trapped some but they are smart and stay away from traps that alread have death on them. I don't feed the chickens in the coop nor do I use a feeder, it gets rat poo in the feed. I really love my brown eggs but not sure I will get anymore hens after these are gone. I can't stand having rats out there.

 

[Bethschicks]

What sexed meant... I started with 18 and ended up with 4!!!! We ate most of them but I had no idea. Since I was looking for eggs I make sure to tell anyone looking to get eggs to get them sexed and you want pullets not roos or cockerals... We ate some delicious chikcen but it stunk we wanted 10 hens.

One more thing if you are left with hens from a breed that don't normally lay well or word on the street i they don't lay... STICK IT OUT! my best layer is a cornishXrock that I decided not to eat!

 

[CluckinghamPal]

don't buy chicks from the new flock of frou frou city farm type shops that are sprouting up everywhere in the big cities.

They don't hatch the eggs properly - because it is a whim and they also don't check their hatched chicks for problems.

How do I know, paid the price :-(((

 

[Choockchick]

MINKS!! I wish I had known about minks and how to deal with them.

When a mink wiped out my ducks I wish I had known to save a carcass of one of the ducks and bait a trap with it to catch the mink. A friend of mine lost half of her flock to a mink and she also didn't know to bait a trap with one of the carcasses because the mink came back the next day and wiped out the rest. (She didn't tell me until after it was all over or I would have at least been able to help her save the last three birds.)

Now I'm going to go back and read everyone's posts.

Great subject!!

 

[sharol]

It wasn't what I didn't know. I had read everything about coops that I could find, and I STILL bought one that was too expensive AND too small for my 7 pullets. I knew better, but I wanted what I wanted and just didn't listen to my head.

Don't believe the coop builders when they tell you a coop will work for x number of hens. MEASURE the dang thing and divide the square feet by 4. I really love my little portable Hen Hoop coop (4x9 counting the run with a 3x4 coop area) as a grow out pen, but while it would work fine for 3 hens it is WAAAAYYYY too small for 7. I don't care how nice the seller is or how far you have traveled to look at the beautiful, expensive prefab coops, pay attention to the square feet.

I ended up buying a 6x8 metal building and creating a coop before the first winter hit. I have plenty of room for my chickens (soon to be a total of 15 -- just slightly too many for the square feet, but there are lots of roost opportunities), and I can stand up in it without crouching. It made those first eggs REALLY expensive.

Space, space, space. A primary concern for chicken owners. 4 square feet for bird in the coop and 10 sq. ft per bird in the run if they don't free range.

 

[Rodster]

Hmmmm,
About the only thing i wish i had known about chickens before i got them was about tylan 50, dosing and how to give shots. Everything else i learned on the fly and went pretty well. However, nursing sick chickens without knowlege of the above was a heartbreaking experience. Watching a hen die and feeling completely powerless was the toughest part of all so far.

Another thing would be learning to keep new hens seperate for a few weeks, as well as making sure you get at least 2 if adding to an existing flock. That gives them a buddy while adjusting and they feel more secure and less lonely i believe.

just my .02

:>

 

[PrimroseMom1]

Hmmmm,
About the only thing i wish i had known about chickens before i got them was about tylan 50, dosing and how to give shots. Everything else i learned on the fly and went pretty well. However, nursing sick chickens without knowlege of the above was a heartbreaking experience. Watching a hen die and feeling completely powerless was the toughest part of all so far.

Another thing would be learning to keep new hens seperate for a few weeks, as well as making sure you get at least 2 if adding to an existing flock. That gives them a buddy while adjusting and they feel more secure and less lonely i believe.

just my .02

:>

What is Tylan? I would go one step further, I would try to never have a lone chicken. I got 2 babies, one died. I got one more, it died. ( that's before I knew about Corid for cocci). Anyway, I had one chick for about 3 weeks then got 2 that were one week older than my lone chicken. They were from the same hatch. The 2 I got have always and still pick on my poor lone chicken. A year later I got a pair. The two pairs stick together and that lone original chicken is the odd girl out. It's a bit sad.

 

[MandyFitch]

Yes, what is Tylan please?

 

[rehric00]

Make sure you are going to stay where you are for a few years! We have made a decision this fall that we can no longer take living where we are now and have set out to find a new home. My coop is metal and weighs a TON... I think if we move I may look into a "movable coop" like a converted horse trailer or something similar