What were your worst mistakes when you first started?

[silkie10]

Not having a walk-in style coop. My back is killing me.

same! my first coop you couldn't stand upright and it ended up killing my back from just a few short minutes of being in there.

 

[room onthebroom]

I like wild birds, but has anybody mentioned the parasites they drop in the yard & pass on to the chickens? No matter how diligent you are about health & husbandry, those wild birds can sabotage your flock over & over.

 

[hud50n]

Being afraid to handle the birds which can be hard to catch, because I thought I would hurt them. I now check my birds everyday for any signs of illness, injury, etc. The sooner you catch problems the better.

 

[MissChick@dee]

I like wild birds, but has anybody mentioned the parasites they drop in the yard & pass on to the chickens? No matter how diligent you are about health & husbandry, those wild birds can sabotage your flock over & over.

You got that right!!

 

[hud50n]

This, for sure. I've had back problems since I was a young adult. I have no idea why I thought it would be no big deal to try to clean out a (prefab) coop that required me to pull the run apart from the coop in order to clean out.

Also I didn't think I really needed litter in the run. Thought the bare ground would be ok enough. Then winter storms hit and I ended up with enough sticky, smelly mud in the run that my boots were literally getting pulled off my feet with each step. It's been deep litter since then - took a while to start building it up, but now no mud, no stink.

Yes!!!! I started with just the ground in the large run they have but recently started keeping litter down and it is so much better for the girls. Cleaner, smells better, and not so mucky.

 

[orangesplash]

I kept buying chicks from different flocks and never realized they could be carriers and out of 40 chicks, only 10 survived. i wouldnt even know and they would be dead one fine day. but i had no prior experience with chicks before this...

 

[Noellereagan]

This is a bad one- I’m almost embarrassed-
1. I have bad smells. I’m a neat freak. Bad. I clean my coops and runs. Throughly. And daily. Sometimes twice daily. With that said, in order to counteract any temporary and terrible odors- I opted for cedar shavings. They lived through it but I hear cedar is highly toxic to poultry. I read that and scraped every last piece out immediately.
2. Not having an extra brooder bulb. The first day I came home with turkeys that have to stay VERY warm- I went out to check on them at midnight and the bulb that was brand new blew up. Aside from many potential disasters- we made it. I put a heater in the room, used a regular bulb and put them in my lap and covered them with a blanket until TSC opened. I now know Walmart has them too. Thankfully, I didn’t lose any. What a miracle.
3. Not being prepared. I ordered poults and ran out of time to pick up food and stuff. I left a job (I clean houses) and drove an hour and a half to get them before the hatchery they were shipped to closed for the day. I had to go to farm and fleet, buy everything I need and back to the clients to finish. I was still an hour from home too. Since they had been in the box for over a day, when I got to the clients house to finish, I set up a temporary brooder in her garage and fed and watered them. It’s a miracle they made i! I bet I’m the only cleaning lady that has a bring your poults to work day. Here I’m supposed to be keeping this wonderful doctors house clean and I’m bringing in livestock. Good thing she’s great! She still asks about them!
4. Trusting our German Shepard to ward off the predator attacks we were having on our chicken while gone during the day. We left her loose. Turns out it was her who killed every last one of the chickens but one roo I still have and treasure before we figured it out. She was killing and burying them. So that was fun when I was digging while gardening. Especially since they were hand raised pets that I was bonded to.

Good question. Can’t wait to read the rest. This is the best way to learn. I have a few new chicken moms and dads I’m sending here.

 

[Noellereagan]

Like Mrs. K, I used to lock my coop up tight for the winter, and put in a heat lamp. Every winter there were respiratory issues and frostbite. Both have been greatly reduced after I stopped heating the coop and made sure they have plenty of ventilation.

Is that why they need ventilation in the winter? Was just talking about this very thing. I assumed it was for the ammonia in air right coops.

This really IS a great post. I bet many will learn from it. I’d be curious as to @R2elk amd @casportpony ’s answers to the OP’s question

 

[Noellereagan]

Going out and leaving my sweet chihuahua to watch the babies. Yikes!!! Sad and stupid, I only had to massacred.

Me too. But a Shepard. And I lost all but one rooster. I left her to protect them. She buried them in the yard. Makes spring gardening really icky.

 

[casportpony]

This really IS a great post. I bet many will learn from it. I’d be curious as to @R2elk amd @casportpony ’s answers to the OP’s question

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.