What were your worst mistakes when you first started?

[Noellereagan]

Mistakes

Believing I could always heal the sick.
Believing I could keep them safe.
Using an incubator and broody coop.
Trying to integrate chicks instead of letting the mother do it.
Feeding layer pellets to a mixed sex and age flock.
Not understanding more about why they behave the way they do.
Not learning quickly enough that how you keep chickens influences their behavior.
Thinking that the advice given on forums was always from experience.
Using cheap plywood for coop builds rather than getting Marine ply.
Leaving food in a coop.
Not carrying my cutthroat razor when investigating a general alarm call.

Probably lots more and I’m still making mistakes.

Why feeding layer pellets to a mixed sex flock? This thread is awesome!

 

[Noellereagan]

One thing right off the top of my head is be sure to make doors to coops wide enough that you can get a wheelbarrow through them and make gates to pens wide enough to get a tractor through.

Oh yes. Learned the hard way too. Putting the last of two new coops up now. Guess what fits through the door. You got it. A wheelbarrow. Not in the other one. And it sucks. Have to put waste in a garbage can and dump it in the wheelbarrow.

 

[Blooie]

I might open a real can of worms with this one, and believe me, that is NOT my intent! We each have our own ways of doing things, some of them from learning on sites like this one and some by trial and error. We do what we think is best for our setups, our locations, and our own personal comfort zones. If there was only one “right” way to raise these feathered yard-poopers, this entire web site could be read in half an hour! So while what I do is what has worked extremely well for me, it is not intended to tell anyone else to change their keeping methods. There. Disclaimer clearly (I hope) stated.

I guess aside from ordering entirely too early in the year, my other personal big boo-boo was relying on books and experts. Sorry, books and experts. But a broody doesn’t heat the entire space she and her chicks are in. She doesn’t have night lights under her wings and she doesn’t let them run all over the place after bedtime, eating all night long. She doesn’t wait until they are 7-8 weeks old, or even older, and then put them through integration. She lets them eat whatever she finds - dirt, germs, seeds, bugs and all. She lets them drink out of mud puddles or water collected on sidewalks, with no additives. She provides them a warm, dark place to hide if she warns them about something or if they get spooked. They run all over their environment, on dirt, exploring and learning how to be chickens, and they regulate their own comfort level by ducking under her for a quick warmup, then they’re back out in the chilly air again.

All of that made me wonder......If a two pound hen can do it without all of the “help”, why do we do it so differently and think we’re doing it better? So I put away the books and pulled out my common sense. I duplicate the real experts as closely as possible. And suddenly I’m not stressed, the chicks are calm and confident, and we’re all happy.

Okay, I’ll go away now.

 

[bobbi-j]

Careful what you wish for with broodies!

Broodiness is contagious. I lost count of how many I had sitting at one time last spring, and it ripples and continued all summer.....into fall. I still have one hen sitting.

Anytime you get tired of those broodies, WV, you just send them my way!

 

[Grits&Eggs]

Broodiness is contagious. I lost count of how many I had sitting at one time last spring, and it ripples and continued all summer....

noooooooooo - sounds like my worst mistake is not breaking my broody hen sooner, it is going on week three, kept thinking this too shall pass! time for me to figure this out or send her packing....

 

[Cayuga momma]

Worst mistake:
PDZ + STRAW + WATER (splashed) = 2 inches of frozen hell.
PDZ great in the warm weather, terrible in winter.

 

[HeyHo]

OK, two follow up questions....

Someone earlier mentioned bio security and keeping their flock off of the front walk/driveway. While I had fretted about gunk that may be in my car's tires, I had not even begun to worry about the UPS delivery person's feet on my porch. Do I need to add this to my list of concerns?

I just started using some Koop Klean -- why is PDZ bad in the winter?? Please save me from frozen hell

 

[Cayuga momma]

OK, two follow up questions....

Someone earlier mentioned bio security and keeping their flock off of the front walk/driveway. While I had fretted about gunk that may be in my car's tires, I had not even begun to worry about the UPS delivery person's feet on my porch. Do I need to add this to my list of concerns?

I just started using some Koop Klean -- why is PDZ bad in the winter?? Please save me from frozen hell

Lol, I had PDZ down and then straw and then my chickens and ducks splashed water out of their bowl. I expected that area to be frozen a little, but the entire 10' x 10' coop floor was frozen PDZ and straw. Even areas that couldn't possibly gotten wet.
I scooped it all out and just layed down fresh straw. I don't understand how it froze together, but it was very hard getting it broken up and it off the coop.
As far as biosecurity it's up to you how strict you want to be, but germs are still going to get to your chickens, unless of course you have bubble chickens, like the bubble boy.

 

[Cayuga momma]

Spoiler: Bubble boy

 

[aart]

why is PDZ bad in the winter??

I have no trouble with PDZ in the winter...
...but it's dry, I don't expect it to soak up water, in any season.