What were your worst mistakes when you first started?

[rosemarythyme]

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

I made sure my doorway was wide enough... but it's also elevated. Lifting a loaded wheelbarrow into an elevated coop is also a bad idea!

Spending a few bucks on a bedding fork was the solution. Never thought of using one on wood chips but it's amazingly effective.

 

[HeyHo]

Germs are still going to get to your chickens, unless of course you have bubble chickens, like the bubble boy

Haha understood. Bubble chickens probably don't get enough ventilation!

 

[HeyHo]

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.

OK great, thanks. It has finally stopped raining in New England and is now just freezing. But I won't change course just yet.

 

[Blooie]

Oh. Definitely! I wish my coop had wider doors and some kind of extra wide ramp that I could raise up when I don’t need it and down when I do, so it didn't get too full of chicken poop throughout the day. One of my little granddaughters has Spina Bifida and Autism, among other things, but she LOVES the chickens and gathering eggs. I’d love to have been able to wheel her all the way into the coop and let her get the eggs out of the nests herself instead of waiting outside for us to fill her basket.

 

[NewBoots]

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.

We've bookmarked the mama heating pad thread and plan to use the method once we are moved in have our coop set up. Hopefully you've saved us some of our own mistakes. I'm sure we'll make others

 

[feathermaid]

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

Layer feed has a higher calcium content and is unnecessary for cockerels/roosters to consume... there is some debate whether it's harmful or not. Also, layer feed doesn't have high enough protein content for younger/growing birds. For flocks of mixed ages, gender and even other mixed poultry, it's best to feed an All Flock or Flock Raiser with oyster shell offered free choice in a separate container for layers.

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

I use PDZ all year with no problems. I fill a tray under my roosts and just scoop it like cat litter (it's never exposed to possible water spillage). Actually eliminates ammonia fumes and helps to dry out the poo and it can go right the compost... it's awesome! I imagine if it became saturated then frozen, it would behave like any other frozen material... difficult to remove.

 

[Cayuga momma]

it's awesome! I imagine if it became saturated then frozen, it would behave like any other frozen material... difficult to remove.

That's what I thought, but the whole coops PDZ w/ straw on top was frozen. Not just the area with water. I was flabbergasted.

 

[Blooie]

That’s great. Remember too that there are other ways of providing a similar broody-like environment for your chicks! Personally I think Mama Heating Pad rocks, regardless of whether you use it like I do or as @aart, who started the psuedo heating plate thread, does. (Over three years - you’d think I’d have the name of the thread on the tip of my....um, fingers! Sorry, my friend!) But folks also have success with commercial brooding plates.

I just think MHP is a little closer to the real thing, and I wish I’d done it from the very beginning.

Aand I quoted the post I was answering but it didn’t put it in the post. Sorry for the confusion. @NewBoots this was for you.

 

[feathermaid]

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.

Blooie! You forgot to mention the MHP in your earlier post! Not everyone knows what that is and it's the best thing ever! I always try to leave a link for new members if they're raising chicks... and the other methods as well. Anything is better than a heat lamp!
Unless you're trying to brood a ton of chicks (more than 30?) that all won't fit under a heating pad.

I'll use this as an opportunity to share in case anyone's interested:
Mama Heating Pad
Pseudo Brooder Heater ‘Plate’
Kick The Heat Lamp: Better, Safer And Healthier Options To Heat Your Brooder

 

[Blooie]

Blooie! You forgot to mention the MHP in your earlier post! Not everyone knows what that is and it's the best thing ever! I always try to leave a link for new members if they're raising chicks... and the other methods as well. Anything is better than a heat lamp!
Unless you're trying to brood a ton of chicks (more than 30?) that all won't fit under a heating pad.

I'll use this as an opportunity to share in case anyone's interested:
Mama Heating Pad
Pseudo Brooder Heater ‘Plate’
Kick The Heat Lamp: Better, Safer And Healthier Options To Heat Your Brooder

I don’t have to.....you just did! Thanks!

I just thought that I’d leave the discussion of MHP out since my point (once I got around to it....I tend to be wordy!) was that we can and should learn to lean a little less on what we’re told we have to do and more on the common sense we were born with. It’s an easy mistake - we were all new to this once and it all seems so intimidating. We just want to do it right, and that’s as it should be. So we rely on those who have been doing it longer than we have. But I contend that we are all smarter and more intuitive about it all than we think!

I mean, common sense tells us there’s a huge disparity between what we see in our good broodies and what we are told is best for raising chicks. Common sense tells us that we’d far prefer touching a running heating pad with our bare hands than touch a running heat lamp. And common sense says it’s time for Blooie to shut up and go to bed!