What were your worst mistakes when you first started?

[Wendy Case]

Absolutely! Maybe someday, right?
Marble -
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Redhead -
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Fabio (yes, I'm aware he's hideous ) -
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Mr. Chatterbox -
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Piper -
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Kisses -
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Mr. Flops -
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And Ling, my beloved tried-and-true rooster -
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~Alex

 

[MROO]

Absolutely! Maybe someday, right?
Marble -
Redhead -
Fabio (yes, I'm aware he's hideous ) -
Mr. Chatterbox -
Piper -
Kisses -
Mr. Flops -
And Ling, my beloved tried-and-true rooster -
~Alex

Fabio is NOT hideous! He's unique! He's perfectly named, too, with a luxurious mane, just like his namesake. LOVE him!

 

[theVulture]

liar, liar, pants on

Liar? Thats very kind of you.
Never had a chicken that got injured, sick or died under my care. Never got any behaviour issues. They were always fed naturally and i never used chicken feed as an easy way out to feed them. I chop vegetables, fruits, meat and fish for them every day and they eat plenty of seeds. They got plenty of exercise and training every day. I clean the coops every 2 days so neighbours dont even know i have chickens.

Only chicken that died under my care is the one my father accidently dropped headfirst into the water, causing it to inhale water. Wasnt even my mistake. If you are call someone a liar, first get to know them

 

[MissChick@dee]

This thread is about mistakes. If you’ve never made one I’d call that a blessing!
Please let’s not ruin a wonderful thread.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Absolutely! Maybe someday, right?
Marble -
View attachment 1633302
View attachment 1633304
Redhead -
View attachment 1633305
Fabio (yes, I'm aware he's hideous ) -
View attachment 1633306
Mr. Chatterbox -
View attachment 1633310
Piper -
View attachment 1633307
Kisses -
View attachment 1633309
Mr. Flops -
View attachment 1633311
And Ling, my beloved tried-and-true rooster -
View attachment 1633314
~Alex

Wow, what a wonderful array of colours - stunning, absolutely stunning! Love Fabio, he's a cutie
You have yourself a bunch of very handsome boys, thank you for posting, they're gorgeous.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Liar? Thats very kind of you.
Never had a chicken that got injured, sick or died under my care. Never got any behaviour issues. They were always fed naturally and i never used chicken feed as an easy way out to feed them. I chop vegetables, fruits, meat and fish for them every day and they eat plenty of seeds. They got plenty of exercise and training every day. I clean the coops every 2 days so neighbours dont even know i have chickens.

Only chicken that died under my care is the one my father accidently dropped headfirst into the water, causing it to inhale water. Wasnt even my mistake. If you are call someone a liar, first get to know them

Imo your doing a grand job and I've known of others who feed as you do and their flocks remain healthy and they certainly seem to fair a lot better than commercial food eaters do. Wish I could afford to feed mine complete fresh, unfortunately I have to rely on commercial feeds for my chickens and ducks but wish I didn't have to. I'm not able to give much of a variety but I do give them Romaine lettuce, cauliflower, carrots, cabbage, banana and peas every day, I've tried them with a few other fruits but they didn't eat them so I just stick to banana which they love and buy them a melon when I can afford it. They have the run of the garden every day bar rare occasions where I have to go out and have no one to watch them, then I lock them in their run, but with everything being wintered it seems theres barely anything left in the garden to forage apart from a few worms here and there but they all go to bed with full crops and tend to use their commercial food as a top up rather than a main so I guess they're finding bugs from somewhere lol.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

I'm fairly new poultry we got our first birds in may 2018, so still making mistakes regularly biggest mistakes by far is
1. Trusting a friend knew more about building a run than they did.
2. Not building the run bigger.
3. Listening to other people too much and not trusting my own instincts and better judgement.
4. Giving too many treats at the beginning causing avoidable unhealthiness and feather picking.
5. Interfering with pecking order stuff causing delays in them sorting themselves out.
6. Buying a flat pack coop

 

[Anna Ranieri]

I hope you had a smoke afterwords.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

1. Not being prepared enough for diseases/ predators. BIO SECURITY

2. Coddling the cockerels hoping they'd grow up to be nice. This doesn't work. It just doesn't. Roosters should respect you and keep their distance. Spoiling them with attention leads to roosters that have no fear of God (you). I had a rooster who would attack and hump shoes and feet.

3. Not culling cockerels/ sick birds as needed. I "couldn't bring myself to do it". After culling three drakes and three roosters the flock is so much more peaceful and happy. Culling is always hard, but if you love them you must do it.

4. Chicken math. Its been said so many times on here but it is a real problem if not controlled! While waiting for my first flock of 11 (which i initially thought was a LOT) to lay, i added a whopping 20 more young pullets and cockerels, six ducks, and four guinea keets. THEN once my first flock began laying I incubated their eggs and got 18 more chicks! Thankfully my coop is huge and i have land so they all fit comfortably, but 50+ birds is too much. It becomes harder to give them one on one attention and daily health checks. You may miss the initial signs of sickness because you simply cannot keep up with everyone the same. Learn from me. Please. Just get a small flock and love them for a while

5. This could go with #3, but don't get too attached. Love them, appreciate them, care for them, but remember they are chickens. They're prey animals and very prone to disease. Sometimes you'll lose your favorite hen or you'll have to cull a dear rooster. Sometimes you'll lose one with little to no explanation why or how. These things happen when you keep chickens, and you must be mentally prepared for these situations.

good advice.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

No we are not “cheap***”, we just do not have unlimited funds. We are doing ok, bills getting paid, pets getting food, etc. but neither one of us have big wig type jobs. We have blue collar jobs so really cannot afford to run to the hardware store on a whim.

Same here! We do the best we can with what we've got. You'll get there