What were your worst mistakes when you first started?

[chickawhat]

I have enough space for many chickens, so I'm going to say having serious chicken math issues doesn't count.

My biggest mistake, getting chicks from TSC. 1/2 chickens (not including my sex-links) from TSC sold as pullets were actually cockerels! So never buying pullets there next spring unless they have sex-links.
TSC translation: Pullet= St. Run
St. Run=Cockerel
Cornish Cross= St. Run because they can get them cheaper that way.

I totally agree anytime I hear the phrase straight run whether it’s from a breeder, store or hatchery. I just know my luck will always give my 75% cockerels lol
some people have great luck. but i remember quite a few times paying extra for vent sexed hatchery birds. It increased my odds but still cockerels. Now I’ve learned to accept that i’ll always have to many boys & to plan ahead for those surprise boys

 

[chickawhat]

That is right. They know me by my muck boots. Mama has the muck boots on and when Sissy comes in to feed she gets the chicken stink and side eye because she doesn’t have the right boots on. Mama where’s the boots and we know who she is. She’s the one who does all the work to feed us, water us, keep us dry and comfy, and our house clean and tidy, and if you don’t have those boots on you ain’t Mama also because Mama brings us our TREATS!!!!!

That’s so stinking cute. Mama has the muck boots . that’s exactly how my girls are too. but my roo is obsessed with my hair. he likes tugging the curls and watch them bounce back. if I wear a baseball cap he freaks out like I’m suddenly a serial killer

 

[chickawhat]

1. Let my wife buy chickens without knowing about Chicken Math, as 6 went to 11 pretty fast.
2. Not having my nail gun until AFTER I built the coop. Things would have gone much quicker.
3. Not having enough roosting bar space in the coop; easily fixed.
4. Not letting treated lumber cure all the way. Let it cure for 3 weeks due to length of build but still needed more time, so it curled. Fixed it with a few bricks and gravity.
5. Exterior nesting box:
a) Put a cover over the gap where the hinges connect to box top to the side wall so water doesn't splatter in; Flex Seal Tape for the win!
b) Make sure there is an overhang all around the lid of the nesting boxes or water will find a way in.
6. Water nipples = WIN (horizontal is what we use)
7a. Chickens can squeeze through what you would "think" is too small of a gap in the chicken door to get out.
7b. Chickens WILL find an opening of a tarped/unlinked wire roofing if one exists. Thus why 7a & 7b go together along with my wife finding one of the Leghorns behind the kennel run and having to chase it back to the run door. Thank God it wanted to go back in the run and not over the yard fence into the woods.

I can relate to all of these. especially the nail gun! I’ve built at least a dozen coops each time I add tools that I can’t believe I ever lived w/o nail gun, 2 drills so you don’t have to switch out bits, laser level, speed square and angle grinder. I won’t touch a build without those 5 gems

 

[thepick4uchicks]

That’s so stinking cute. Mama has the muck boots . that’s exactly how my girls are too. but my roo is obsessed with my hair. he likes tugging the curls and watch them bounce back. if I wear a baseball cap he freaks out like I’m suddenly a serial killer

I love it! My daughter has seriously curly hair. I’m talking when she was two years old she had probably ten or so inches long hair but it looked like a four inch Afro and I do not mean that negatively or anti- racially or any of that bad in anyway so people out there please do not get offended because that is said with love and much respect. In the very front of her forehead she has a cowlick which is handed down from me and my father and probably his father but my son has it also and I call it her personality curl and no matter how she wears her hair I can pick it out even with it down to the middle of her back- God forbid our poor drains and floors. Thank goodness she is wearing it super short and actually I am cutting it right now. Of all things (she is going to cosmetology school too in two weeks-I can’t believe it myself) anyway have I gone down a rabbit hole. Anyway if those poor chickens got ahold of her head they would get lost and never found. It’s partially purple like maple surple too. Her favorite color. But I love that analogy and your rooster! Love it love it! The things we do for our lovely birds! We would probably let them tug all of it out!

 

[drinkoj]

Did you have a chick or a grown chicken that drowned them self? Are you serious?

I can relate to all of these. especially the nail gun! I’ve built at least a dozen coops each time I add tools that I can’t believe I ever lived w/o nail gun, 2 drills so you don’t have to switch out bits, laser level, speed square and angle grinder. I won’t touch a build without those 5 gems

2 drills would have been life changing! Never thought of that.

 

[Sahraschweiss]

I am a Covid chicken person.

My husband and I had talked off and on about getting chickens for a few years but never seriously. We would joke that it would be an empty nest project when our only went away to college.

Then Covid and work at home happened. The three of us were at the farm store getting dog food. There were chicks. OMG they were cute. Hubby looks at me and says wanna get some. Kid chimes in that she goes to college in the fall. I asked hubby how much time he needed to get a coop and run built. Said not long (understatement of the year).

I googled best chickens for beginners and we went home with 9 chicks (3 ISAs, 3 Gold Laced Wyandottes, 3 Speckled Sussex), and stuff to start a brooder.

By the next week a friend asked we would co-op chickens for him, and the flock of 9 added 5 black sex links. Friend rehabs houses, so he gave us lots of treated lumber to build coop. Even came over to help. Then rain delays happened. Then plan changes.

Husband and I had different views on what a coop should be. I wanted a chicken shack...he made a vinyl palace that matches the house. Matching siding, roof pitch and shingles, gutters, door... It is an 8 x 12 mini house with 8 foot ceilings. There's an attic with forced air ventilation and ridge vents. The walls and attic have spray foam insulation and are sheeted with masonite board. The floors are vinyl and wrap up under the wall sheeting. There is even a four foot over hang porch. And electrical.

After 8 weeks, we got it to a point to get the girls. By that time we had lost two birds to foxes. We had a temporary run that was more keep chickens in and our dogs out. The main run is chicken netting to keep the chickens in and electric to keep predators out. I wanted welded wire, but ran into a supply problem. I might change the netting in the fall...

About a week after the girls had been in their new digs, we missed the sounds of their peeps and got 8 more chicks. Man that chicken math gets you quick.

We have rearranged the coop several times, and will probably rearrange it several more. I'm okay with this being a learning process, and that things won't go as planned. I know I will have more losses, while the birds are hardy they are still vulnerable to illness and injury. Things happen. I will tackle those challenges as they come. This forum has been a tremendous amount of support, education, and encouragement. I'm lucky that of my flock of 20 I only have one cockerel.

Things I would do differently:
1. Research breeds
2. Build coop and run first.
3. Plan for more predators than I think I have.
4. While those peeps are cute, those little cluckers are poop and dirt machines that don't belong in the house. Chicken poop should be marketed as an adhesive.
5. Chicken math is real! It's not a joke.
6....to be continued

 

[ChickenCanoe]

2 drills would have been life changing! Never thought of that.

There are all sorts of quick change bit holders that make a second drill unnecessary.
This is just one example of all that are on the market.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Grabber-1-4-in-Quick-Change-Steel-Bit-Holder-2-Pack-21625/302442180

 

[theycallmechickmagnet]

Oh my goodness I have a story. We got hens from a poultry place and one gave coryza to and killed our whole flock. So we will never buy chickens from anyone again, now we only hatch or get babies from places like tractor supply.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Oh my goodness I have a story. We got hens from a poultry place and one gave coryza to and killed our whole flock. So we will never buy chickens from anyone again, now we only hatch or get babies from places like tractor supply.

The other option is to quarantine new birds regardless of their source.

 

[chickawhat]

There are all sorts of quick change bit holders that make a second drill unnecessary.
This is just one example of all that are on the market.
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https://www.homedepot.com/p/Grabber-1-4-in-Quick-Change-Steel-Bit-Holder-2-Pack-21625/302442180

Yes but when you are putting roofing panels up it’s a lot easier when both people have drills.

There are all sorts of quick change bit holders that make a second drill unnecessary.
This is just one example of all that are on the market.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Grabber-1-4-in-Quick-Change-Steel-Bit-Holder-2-Pack-21625/302442180

I have a similar bit, but I still wouldn’t give up my set. I should have specified that one is an impact driver & the other is a torque drill. The impact driver moves through 6x6 treated lumber like its butter and having both allows 2 people to work on roofs and siding on opposite sides. no more passing the drill or waiting to use it or worse yet, dropping/losing a bit in the grass multiple times. that happens way more than i’d like to admit.