What were your best choices when you first started?

[5.3acredream]

I thought that now we heard what we all did wrong, we could talk about what we did right!

1. My coop is a modified daisy coop. It has a back that opens completely. Great for cleaning it out and I can reach to all the far corners.

2. The coop is ~3 feet off the ground. Chickens hang out under it when it's raining, sunny, snowing....

3. The coop has massive overhangs. Keeps water off the windows and give me some cover if I need to be out there

4. The poop boards are lift out. I pull em out, scoop them, drop them to the ground to dry out while I clean the rest. The amount of poop on those boards is incredible. I save myself a ton of time by having the roosts with poop boards.

5. My run is a completely enclosed 20x20. Chicken wire on the ceiling and hardware cloth on the sides and into the ground. No system is 100% secure but we don't bother close the coop at night.

6. My feed system is a 5 gallon bucket attached to the coop wall. It has eyebolts hanging down with wine corks and I have a shower cap over the lid just to keep any moisture from getting into the top. Chickens peck the corks, pellets fall. Whole thing cost me 8 bucks and I fill it maybe once in 2 weeks. Food waste is completely eliminated because they actually eat what falls! As chicks, those b@st!rds billed it all out on the ground and left it.

7. I exclusively used vertical nipples in a gatorade bottle for chicks and switched them to the a five gallon bucket with horizontal nipples once they got in the run. No drowned chicks, no poop in the water, no shavings in the water. I fill the water every week or so and have a little heater in it now that its winter. Opaque bucket = no algae growth.

8. Used puppy pee pads for the chicks for the first week, then pee pads and shavings thereafter. I'd switch them every day and check each chick for poopy butt when I lifted them out for cleaning. I was able to notice poopy butt on our faverolle right away and knew to check her (and soak her) before I left for work every morning and when I got home. She was our most delicate chick. Last to leave to mommy brooder and run around but she made it.

9. Used a heating pad to brood the chicks. Kicked them into the carport after the first week and avoided the indoor mess.

10. Had nutridench on hand for the chicks when they arrived. Used it in their water for the first 2 days, then on particularly hot days.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

First thing I did right was research breeds and get a small variety. They were easy to tell apart and who laid which egg. And I got to experience many fun breeds that way.

 

[Chullicken]

Think the very best thing I did with my chickens was after all the hustle and bustle died down, I sat in my chicken run and just took a breath and got my wits together so I could start making better decisions. Noticed some future issue (With livestock it seems never ending) like I penned in underneath my coop for another 20 Sq f for them which they love to hang out under. Like to think I took out a lot of stupidness in my hobby. Realized I don't need all this clutter and junk that seems so fad right now. KISS...Keep it simple stupid is what we said in the military when we tried to over complicate simple things. I don't know if I will ever have my ideal setup, but I'd like to get closer and closer each year.

 

[aart]

Read about all the disasters and thus avoided most of them.
Mostly it was luck and second nature.

I spent 6 months readinreadingreading here and on other forums,
for hours a day, I had a lot of time on my hands(was recovering from tragedies) and tend to go full immersion when learning something new.
I took notes and saved links in a word doc(you can search it) and a spreadsheet with headers like coops, roosts, nests, dosages, predators, etcetcetc.
2 decades of design and build experience helped me plan out what needed to be built.
Was lucky in that I already had a large shed and most the tools and experience to build coop and run.

Learning about chickens and all they require is like getting sip of water out of a fire hose...if you're not careful, you'll drown!

 

[Doc7]

Agree about a no waste feed bucket and water bucket situation. I too only fill feed every 2 weeks and dump and refill water buckets weekly. Chicken baby sitting for me is non existent (although now that they are laying I guess I need to offer someone free eggs to come by and gather them up)

 

[Doc7]

I would add mama heating pad IN THE COOP.
No brooder needed. My first chicks were easy as they had the whole coop to themselves. My next ones will be the panic room method.

 

[RUNuts]

It is always about learning. One of the comments that rang true was to listen to the chickens. They will tell you what is needed. You just have to be smart enough to listen.

Agree with researching and deciding. There will always be something to change, enlarge or "improve". The chickens may not agree.

Get them outside as soon as possible, weather permitting. They grow faster on grass.