What were your worst mistakes when you first started?

[feathermaid]

Using wood chips instead of hay.

Why do you not like using wood chips?

“Free ranging fairy tales”
[...] Those pictures you see on blogs and in magazines...
of beautiful chickens happily grazing in pastoral settings...
with the sun shimmering off their beautiful feathers....
amidst lovely gardens and lush lawns....

See that beautiful too-tiny coop and perfect landscaped yard? Not for long!!!!
I don't have a pic of the free ranging aftermath - I was way too ashamed. But that little coop got moved to an unused part of the yard...
Behind bars!!!
Then we got motion detector lights, which kept the chickens awake and outside way past dark, so they took to roosting on the fence (since it got too dark to see inside the coop). I forgot to pull them off and lock up a couple times, and an unknown predator took one right off the fence! So we got rid of the motion lights and implemented a much more diligent locking up schedule.

Unfortunately, many of the mistakes we all make are somewhat (dare I say) necessary to learn what actually works the best in our given situation. Some mistakes are very hard lessons with heartbreaking consequences, but if we pay attention, we can keep them from happening again. I also think that no matter how much you learn or how much you prepare, it may be unrealistic to expect a mistake to never happen.

 

[SomeChickinTN]

Can you close off the room the brooder is in from the rest of the house and open a window? Have you weaned them off the heat lamp?

They should have a good balanced diet no matter where they are housed.

Yes, they've been at room temp for awhile now and have been doing great. The most I could do is close the vent in the laundry room. There are no windows in there, just the back door.

 

[MickWithChicks]

1. Brooding in the house instead of leaving it to natures professionals: broody hens!
2. Rushing the quarantine process of adult birds. Scaly leg mites aren't fun!
3. Not using the good stuff!
   • Diatomaceous Earth is a waste of space. Use scientifically proven treatments such as Permethrin.
   • I always quarantine now with double the recommended ivermectin topical dosage and run a course of albendazole drench. I use both at the recommended doses for my quarterly treatments of the whole flock.
4. Not sticking to a regular worming schedule or regular lice/mite prevention schedule. Prevention is far easier than curing.
5. Locating my coops and run in the easiest-to-build area of the property instead of the most suitable position of the property. I'm having regrets and wish I'd put in a bit more work upfront, I'll likely have to start again soon in the more suitable position.
6. Chickens = rats = snakes. Building a fox proof coop is one thing. Building a rat proof coop is much harder. Especially if you're retrofitting.

 

[Cluckerzfamilyfarm]

Not passing chicken math class. And thinking I need all this fancy equipment. Natural raising is best. Let the birds be birds.

 

[centrarchid]

Not putting gravel down as part of walkway between house and poultry yard. Mud and frost heaved soil can be difficult to walk on when carrying heavy loads. I have had to crawl pushing buckets or a feed sack after freezing rain events, but not since the coarse gravel was put down.

 

[TomZilla43]

When I got started I built a tractor coop thinking that would be the best all around design to keep chickens. After about 6 months of moving a coop around my property and really the biggest thing is BENDING over to feed and water the flock on a day to day basis I came to understand that this seemed more like work than a hobby and I wasn't even getting paid for it. So I built a 2nd coop, larger than what I needed at the time, walk in with a built in brooder box and storage space for feed and other chicken keeping necessities. So for me the answer is don't go small on the front end, go ahead and plan bigger than what you imagine you will need and just maybe you won't have to start over for at least a little while.

 

[Ninjasquirrel]

1. Built the coop too small. Now we need to build an addition.
2. Got too many birds. We thought we would loose 1 or 2 to predators...didnt happen. Now we have 8 in a small coop instead of the 6 we planned on.
3. No contingent coop for injuries. We had a young one get attacked their first week out in the coop. Shes fine now but she was seperated while they were establishing their pecking order for 2 weeks. Shes more of a pet than a chicken now.

Learning new things every day and Im sure we will make more mistakes. Guess thats what being a parent is like

 

[SW31]

Unsupervised free ranging is a no no.

Chickens are not stupid - they remember, are devious and highly manipulative.

Each chicken has their own likes and dislikes.

Despite anything I do I will also end up feeding most of the local little birds who live under my roof tiles and adore chicken pellets.

I need to restrict treats more.

 

[aart]

Yes, they've been at room temp for awhile now and have been doing great. The most I could do is close the vent in the laundry room. There are no windows in there, just the back door.

We really should be talking about this in another thread...but they need to be acclimated to the colder temps somehow.

 

[Henrik Petersson]

Getting too young a rooster to four adult red sex links.

As you may know, red sex links are often terrible bullies to other chickens. We got our hens first, and after a while thought "hey, lets get a rooster". We got a three-month old Swedish Black roo, and I believe that if they hadn't free ranged so that he could get away, the hens would have murdered him. They bullied him so hard and wouldn't let him catch a break.

Fortunately, he didn't get totally mentally destroyed, and as the weeks went by, he was slowly getting more accepted. After some six months, he was not only accepted, but at the top of the pecking order. By then, he had grown from slightly smaller than the hens, physically, to slightly larger.

Lesson learned: If you're gonna buy a rooster, make sure he's not too young. Preferably get one that's physically full-grown.