What were your worst mistakes when you first started?

[pennyJo1960]

Believing it when I was *gifted* 6 chicks & told "sex unknown". Yep. Got 6 cockerels who attacked everything & everyone!

Not thinking that chicks could grow into cockerels & then what was I going to do?

Not realising that though a snake could get into the pen to scoff the eggs it wouldn't be able to get back out & I would have to remove it. It takes every male in the household to remove a snake from a chook pen.

That chooks can roost higher than I can climb. I once had a bantam that roosted in the top of a tree each night.

That if a determined chook can't go over it she will go under it & if she can'y go under it she will go straight through it. Herding chooks is a real thing.

Welcome to the thread and here to Backyard Chickens.. Where are you located here in Washington western part nothing but garter snakes and the birds kill them

 

[Ribh]

Welcome to the thread and here to Backyard Chickens.. Where are you located here in Washington western part nothing but garter snakes and the birds kill them

I am located on an island off the Queensland coast, Australia. Most of our snakes are deadly & though a python prefers the eggs it could easily swallow a chook.

Thank you for the welcome.

 

[Killer Tomato]

Adding to the existing flock, 2 chicks at a time. Those 2 chicks grew up, and were quite bonded to each other as hens, and one died suddenly last June (we think of the heat, she was a Jersey Giant). The survivor is bereft, and is still the flock loner. She sleeps by herself on the poop board, under the roosting bar, as none of the other hens will let her sit with them.

I'll always get 3 or more now, just in case.

 

[RachelGM]

You were such a blessing on their last days. Thank you for taking them.

I still miss them. The last, Martha, died in October. I now have an olive egger, her brother and two bantams, all under a year old. Bitten by the bug, I guess!

 

[cmom]

I like coops I can stand up in and collect my eggs without going into the coops. My mistake was when we built our first coop, was putting an inner plywood wall around the bottom of the coop and a ceiling in the coop. Rats nested in-between the inner and outer wall and in the ceiling. I took the walls and ceiling out and got rid of the rats.

 

[Ducksandchickens]

My mistake was letting them out from 6 am to about 8 pm. Hawks are nasty things aren’t they?

 

[FluffTheDuck]

I have quite a few

Thinking a rooster will be nice to me

Buying 1 chicken

thats all

 

[Hermit]

I have quite a few

Thinking a rooster will be nice to me

Buying 1 chicken

thats all

I’ve been doing forced socializing with my two cockerels.
They aren’t overly happy about it, but they definitely don’t chase me. The DOGS, on the other hand… those, even the hens chase.

 

[MissChick@dee]

Adding to the existing flock, 2 chicks at a time. Those 2 chicks grew up, and were quite bonded to each other as hens, and one died suddenly last June (we think of the heat, she was a Jersey Giant). The survivor is bereft, and is still the flock loner. She sleeps by herself on the poop board, under the roosting bar, as none of the other hens will let her sit with them.

I'll always get 3 or more now, just in case.

Mean girls suck !!

 

[pennyJo1960]

Yup