What were your worst mistakes when you first started?

[igorsMistress]

This is a great thread idea! It's interesting to read all the responses.

I wouldn't brood my chicks indoors with a heat lamp. It would have been better if we had the coop built and used a heat plate instead.

Also, if I'd thought more about the future with regard to coop design, I would have insisted on a seaparate brooding space in there.

 

[igorsMistress]

I thought of another one, and this ones IMPORTANT!

“Free ranging fairy tales”

Free ranging is great- don’t get me wrong, i free range daily. BUT there are drawbacks that you have to work out ahead of time.

1. PREDATORS
And
2. Total destruction of your yard.

You need a LOT of space
or
a VERY well planned “restrict and rotate” system to avoid having your yard end up a moonscape by the end of year 1.

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....


Oh honey,
That’s fake news!

so very true!

 

[Blooie]

so very true!

Oh, I dunno....third year here in this shot -

 

[HomesteaderWife]

PREDATORS! I cannot count the times we have had to do pest control around our pen over the years. We learned from our very first mistake of having a weasel get an older chick. After sealing up well, we still see so many possums and raccoons. Making sure to have a nuisance-proof enclosure

 

[bobbi-j]

Another thing I have changed - when I had broodies in the past, I would keep them and the babies separated until the babies were about 8 weeks old, then integrate them. It rarely went well. I have since read on BYC that early integration is better. Mama’s protective hormones are still in overdrive and the rest of the flock will learn to let them be. They will also teach wayward chicks some manners and the chicks will learn their place in the flock. Sure they’ll get a warning peck on the head now and then, but that’s how they’ll learn.

 

[RollTideChicken]

1. Lack of ventilation
2. Run position - they got no real shade
3. Overestimating the size of chicks - they fit right thru chainlink! Who knew!
4. Kept water in the coop
5. Worried more about the cold than the heat summer.
The list is long...

 

[9SpiceyChickens]

Two words- "Prefab Coop"
I'm fine with my coop- a Prefab with a hecka lot of improvements- added run, automattic door, added sq ft in coop

Edited!

 

[feathermaid]

Edited!

Oh, I thought you meant actually add a whole other coop onto the original!
It totally made sense to me!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Chicken keeping here started long before I was born by my family in the late 1800s. So any mistakes by family had been corrected long before that. Restarting poultry keeping in recent years, I must say, my worst mistake is not being here to lock up every building at dusk.
More recently, because of a resurgence in mink, my mistake was to allow buildings to have a gap opening as large as an inch.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

1. Lack of ventilation
2. Run position - they got no real shade
3. Overestimating the size of chicks - they fit right thru chainlink! Who knew!
4. Kept water in the coop
5. Worried more about the cold than the heat summer.
The list is long...

That's a great list and one that I think most people can relate to.
1. Big ventilation is more important than food and water to animals with tiny respiratory systems.
2. Sun may be nice on winter days but doesn't help at 4 AM on January 10 and hurts at 4 PM on July 10 in the northern hemisphere.
3. I've done that many times, much to my chagrin.
4. Spills and too much humidity?
5. I've lost chickens to summer heat but never to cold.