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

[The Mother Hen]

Find healthy chicks and repair any damage/holes in the coop. Also, make sure the hens are healthy when you buy them.

 

[newbie32]

How much the costs for everything would add up.. =( Too bad i didnt look much into the materials and what not before ordering my cute chickens =D Oh yeah.. and how theyre all supposed to be pullets, and i ended up with 2 roos...its going to be so hard parting with them! Im not readyyyy!!!!

Actually yeah I agree that I didn't realize the cost was going to exceed $100 for the coop. I have spent way more than that plus it took triple the time to do it. It still isn't entirely done either

. Your cover pic looks like you have Buff Orpingtons-wanna swap pics? I originally thought I just had 1 roo. Now I am thinking more but they are too young still.

 

[PrimroseMom1]

I wish I had known that I would fall on love and want more and more and even consider selling my house to move outside the city to have even more...it will also make you want guineas, geese, turkeys, goats....oh, my!!!

 

[Wednesday]

S

I wish I had known that I would fall on love and want more and more and even consider selling my house to move outside the city to have even more...it will also make you want guineas, geese, turkeys, goats....oh, my!!!

Haha. Someone on here said chickens are the gateway pet....
I'm trying to figure out how the cool lady in an a earlier post has a hundred chickens. So jealous. Are they all free range and sleep in a big barn? I was surprised and happy to see all the responses to my thread here and couldn't figure out why all the interest all of a sudden until I saw it was on the homepage. That made my day.

 

[CosmoTheRooster]

I'm not an experienced flock owner by any means, but I have absorbed a good amount of knowledge and advice raising backyard chickens. When you purchase chicks, buy from either a breeder, or a recommended hatchery(I recommend Meyers). As far as the coop goes, don't rush it. Unless you can't, I strongly suggest building your own coop. Build it as big as you can(Don't just use the 4sq. ft/chicken rule for the number of chickens you have). In other words, don't mess with buying or building tiny coops. Make sure it is very secure. Keep their coop/brooder sanitary, don't be lazy. Make the run big if you aren't free-ranging your flock. If you are free-ranging, good for you. Keep a very close eye on them while they are free-ranging though, there are predators in most areas that would love to make a meal of your chickens. There are many things I could say, but I kept it simple.

-Cosmo

 

[cheeperchick]

Has anyone dealt with Meyer Hatchery?

I began with 20 possible hatcheries for baby chicks, and have narrowed my list down to three.

I hope to work alongside two of them, and need to determine which hatchery will truly provide me with quality birds.

One of my biggest dreams in the world has been to manage a chicken ranch. This mean that I will work to produce healthy eggs, meat (if I am up to it) and hatchery. I have a 2 year plan before preparing to farm.

If you could let me know about hatchery experiences and the quality of the birds you received, I would appreciate it.

I started raising a flock of my own this year with 8 from meyer (hatched on Jun 24 & Jul 8). I originally ordered 9 but when I picked my package up from the post office, only 2 had made it. Meyer guarantees their chick orders and u can file a claim for any fatalities after 3 days of receipt, which I did. Filing a claim was hassle free and customer service is polite & helpful since I didn't know anything about ordering chooks by mail.

I got my replacements at no additional cost the week of Jul 8 alive& chirping. Only 3 didn't make it thorough the weekend. I called meyer again and they refunded my money for the lost chicks.

Overall, I like the 3 chick order minimum vs the standard 15 from other places. I was also satisfied with the customer service & quality of the chicks. If I ever order chicks by mail again I would go through meyer however I would order them to get them early springtime instead of June like I did. Summer heat not good when you're expecting baby chicks in the mail. Here's some pix of mine...good luck! O

White rock & buff orp from meyer:

Delaware, RIR, Dominique, and golden laced wyandotte from meyer (about a week old after I got them)

Same birds as above:

 

[Twinklin]

I wish I had known about fancy breeds and feather types. I thought all chickens looked basically the same and just came in different colors. I wish I had known about silkies, sultans, polish, bantam types, that there's such a thing as frizzled feathers, etc. I don't have room for many birds and got 4 at the feed store so now I'm stuck with the boring basic breeds but I still love them.

 

[chichek]

If i could go back to the begining i would build a more secure coop, a fox got over the fense killed them all and took 2, it was so depressing! And i also got sold sick animals by someone who refused to accept that they were sick, the poor animal died assoon as it got home, atleast it passed away under the blue sky on green grass... But little did i realise! It spread to my whole flock! Thank god i didnt need to cull any, AND a lost one of my hens to lice so from now on, i inspect my birds and dust them regularily. There's nothing worse than raising them all by hand, and then watching them slowly get worse and die or to wake up and find them dead on the groind

 

[chicken farmer]

That the pecking order can get nasty and worst then I thought,but it works out its there nature!

 

[newbie32]

I wish I had known that I would fall on love and want more and more and even consider selling my house to move outside the city to have even more...it will also make you want guineas, geese, turkeys, goats....oh, my!!!

Hehe I now have my sights set on dwarf milking goats! I don't have the land now but will someday!