What were your worst mistakes when you first started?

[BReeder!]

My worst mistakes:
- Self built far too low ramshackle coop that was impossible to get into, impossible to clean properly and even collecting eggs gave me lumbago.

- It wasn't rain proof, either, as I found out later

- Not taking into account that chickens are jail break artists - had lots of escapes from my run. Just because you can't see the gap in the fence, doesn't mean that the chickens can't.

- Not taking into account that chickens can and do fly 2 meters high (see jail break artists)

- Not taking into account that chicken food attracts rats an that rats kill baby chicks

The gaps in fence... so true! My chickens were poking their heads into my neighbors yard between the staggered fence boards which I didn't consider initially. It's a solid fence but the boards are staggered one in my yard, the next in their yard, and so forth. A mature chicken cannot fit, but their heads were able to. The neighbor's dog was playing whac-a-mole with my chickens' heads! thankfully my neighbor brought it to my attention before the dog actually got one of the hens. I had to unexpectedly spend an hour and some cash running wire 3ft up the fence across the back of the run.

 

[Trux]

Clipping my Roosters claws with human toe nail clippers.
Having a running bloody mess and no quick-stop.
Not crating the running bloody mess once I got the blood stopped.
Then trying to bandage a Single toe rather than the whole foot.
Not using vet-wrap to make the bandage.
Then feeding my Rooster stool softeners to pass the swallowed bandage.

I'm sorry but this made me laugh, as I saw in my minds eye someone running after a running Roo and the things that can happen during this race. And then the Roo eating the bandage so you feed it stool softener

 

[cheekiechickie]

Thinking I could build my own coop and end up having a cute place with a little garden like I see in so many pics on here. I had no experience before hand and with chicken math I'm 3 coops in and it's barely improving...

 

[paintedChix]

3622

...... I'll not be adding chicks though, because I need to be sure I don't get a roo by mistake.

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...

 

[micstrachan]

Oh absolutely, wild birds carry yeast infections too. I used to feed the wild birds and they came in hoards to my feeders. By summers end the grounds actually smelled yeasty. The wild birds can also carry the "super bacteria" which is not a bacteria at all but a yeast that is EXTREMELY difficult to irradicate. I sometimes wonder if this is what ran through my entire flock over the years, having had SO many yeasty crops in the past 8 years. Not only do I keep food and water out of the wild birds reach, but I don't feed the wild birds anymore, bringing them into the yard, tracking crud into the coop on my shoes, chickens picking it up free ranging.

How is Ruby doing now?

Ruby is doing great! Still molting along with most of her flockmates, but chipper as can be. Eating normally. Solid poops have returned. She’s chatting up a storm. And most importantly, her crop is still emptying properly. Thank you SO much for all your help and guidance through that!

 

[Shadrach]

I am still a fairly new chicken keeper (1 1/2 years) and I have a mixed flock. Are the layer pellets only for a specific age range? I have seven hens, 6 months to 1.5 years, so not really giving any more chick feed. We also supplement with a cracked corn mix.

Currently there is a featured thread running on this topic.
The links that @ChickenCanoe has provided are essential reading.
I have my own stories regarding layer feed which I may get typed up at some point.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/lets-talk-about-layer-feed.1283837/

 

[TwoCrows]

Ruby is doing great! Still molting along with most of her flockmates, but chipper as can be. Eating normally. Solid poops have returned. She’s chatting up a storm. And most importantly, her crop is still emptying properly. Thank you SO much for all your help and guidance through that!

You are so welcome! After a yeast infection, yeasts can linger around, they can go dormant, they are there but you don't see signs of them. So keep watching her for a few months and I've found that using probiotics for a solid month afterwards greatly lessens the chances a yeast infection will develop again.

 

[townchicks]

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

I've thought about that, but those are hard to find breeds unless you mail order, and you can't mail order just 2. We have a 5 hen limit here.
Processing roos, well, just isn't going to happen here. Finding homes, extremely hard, as no one here in town can have them. So, it's just easier to stick to started pullets or hens.

 

[RachelGM]

Lots of people thought my taking on old hens was a mistake, because they would have health issues (mine had scale leg mites and one, a bad abcess that soon meant she had to be dispatched), poorer eggs (they'd been badly fed before I got them) and simply wouldn't live long enough for me to enjoy them. They were wrong. It just made me want to have more chickens.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I am still a fairly new chicken keeper (1 1/2 years) and I have a mixed flock. Are the layer pellets only for a specific age range? I have seven hens, 6 months to 1.5 years, so not really giving any more chick feed. We also supplement with a cracked corn mix.

The guaranteed analysis and ingredient tag on the feed bag has feeding directions and what birds are to be fed with it. Almost every bag also has a chart listing all that company's feeds and the types and ages of birds the feed is formulated for. That will be your best guide.
Not all feed types are available in all areas and all stores. What someone suggests here as guidance on how to feed is based on their experience and what feeds they have available.
Your best bet is to go to the feed store/s and read the labels.

There just isn't any better source of advice on what to feed, to whom and when than guidance from the entity formulating the feed. They have all the nutritional research and they make up the recipes based on ingredients available to them and that research.

https://extension2.missouri.edu/g8352