What were your worst mistakes when you first started?

[Folly's place]

It's far better to practice good biosecurity, which includes never adding strange birds in the first place. Chicks from good hatcheries, or extremely carefully selected breeders, maybe.
Actual isolation isn't really possible for most of us!
Mary

 

[sylviethecochin]

My parents made all the big mistakes; we got chickens when I was twelve, so I watched as they raised seven RIR cockerels to a year old (luckily, I dropped them in the goat pen on a whim, so they stayed in there and the hens were free of them) and then tried to butcher them. First, we chased them down. Then dad killed them. Then we scalded them in boiling water, just as his father had when he was a kid. Funnily enough, the chickens came out tough and partially-cooked. Who'd a' thunk?

We kept the feeders full all of the time. No problems with little birds; many problems with rats. I hate rats. My chickens get fed twice a day and then the feed gets put away. Every so often, I put poison up under the roof where the chickens can't get it, just in case. Because rats are bad. I'm looking into getting a small terrier. I hate rats.

We brought bantam chicks inside (homicidal broody) and put them in an uncovered brooder. The dog thought they were funny-looking, so he picked them up and dropped them in random places. Some of them, he crushed to death. Not intentionally, of course; he was generally a good dog, and he never killed any other chicken, but we were pretty angry at him.

We fed our dogs whole eggs. These dogs had access to the coops (guard/watchdogs) and soon, egg production started dropping. (???) Luckily, border collie crosses are sensitive sorts, and it only took a two smacks on the muzzle to get the message across once I figured out what was going on.

Galvanised metal waterer. Overnight. In thirty below weather. Need I say more? (In case I do, the water expanded and split the weld on the bottom. Dad's a welder, but he won't touch galvanised steel because of the fumes and how thin this stuff was, so we scrapped it for a rubber pan.)

We allowed a hen to brood herself nearly to death.

We allowed a hen to brood on upwards of thirty eggs because she just kept collecting them.

Funnily enough, and contrary to the expereinces of everyone else on here, we ignored biosecurity and never had a problem (except with lice and one case of Mareks.) Free-ranged without limits and only ever lost one hen.

 

[pitbullmomma]

Just started reading this thread, awesome idea!

My worst mistake? Ordering my first batch of day old chicks from MPC, and going, "Why do I have to buy SIX CHICKENS?!! I only want like 2 or 3." Ummmm, yeah ( not quite two years later...currently at 19, and three coops, lol).

 

[HennyPenny2019]

I was lucky, it could have been much worse...and it was a good entry.

I avoided many 'mistakes' by reading here for months of hours a day before building coop and getting birds...see, I built coop before getting birds, took all summer, but had to hurry to build run, that only took two weeks.

This makes me feel better about the hours I’m putting into reading, looking up, etc. It’s like going to school to prepare for getting my chickens. I’m hoping to bypass some mistakes.

 

[HennyPenny2019]

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.

I hoped you would expand on these “ mistakes” so we newbies can maybe avoid making them .. and likely make others

 

[pennyJo1960]

We all try to not repeat mistakes @Shadrach is no different that way

 

[HennyPenny2019]

On an obsessive, crazed weaselcide at the moment though it has had its tole on me being a very live and let live type these days. Found my wild pet squirrel in the trap yesterday. Great sadness for me at the moment.

Awwww ... shoot Sorry to hear that.

 

[HennyPenny2019]

Mistake-Buying newly hatched chicks at a swap meet from uninformed people.
Bought two Easter egger hens, and one was a rooster and had to go because it’s not allowed in my community. Raised the pretty thing until about 12 weeks old until it started crowing. Waste of time, money and energy. I’ll stick to tractor supply from now on for any new members to my flock.

Excuse me ... the picture ... is that your actual chicken? It’s SO amazingly beautiful! What kind is it?

 

[HennyPenny2019]

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

So you would use this to raise day old chicks that you ordered, bought, etc until they are 6 - 8 weeks?

 

[HennyPenny2019]

3622

You can just get pullet chicks of an auto sexing breed, too. Get some pretty eggs that way & nice hens!

55 Flowery Hens - white eggs; CLBs (cream or crested legbars) - blue/green eggs; Bielefelders - light brown eggs; RBs (Rhodebars) - medium tone brown eggs; Smaalands - tinted eggs.

Or you could process roos...

Would you expand on “auto sexing breed” please? I am really concerned with getting Roos