What were your worst mistakes when you first started?

[chicknmania]

Which dewormer do you use, and how often?? thanks!

Levasol, which is an excellent dewormer that has been around for a long time and not used as much as some. I used to alternate using it with Strike III dewormer, which was also an excellent dewormer, but it's no longer available. Since it's not, I'll probably alternate it with Safeguard. Alternating dewormers once in a while helps to avoid resistance buildup.

 

[SBFChickenGirl]

(Not really a mistake, but you know) Thinking that if I couldn't hear the rooster crowing it wasn't a rooster. We had to get rid of him because we couldn't have roosters.

 

[aliciaplus3]

My BIGGEST mistake, to date ... going in to Tractor Supply during Chick Days ... unattended! My children keep me on a short leash, these days, as Chick Days are scheduled to start again, soon. They're so funny! They check in on me whenever the car and I are gone at the same time.
"Where are you, Mom?"
"Out running errands."
"WHERE are you running errands, Mom?"
(location triangulated and compared to maps of our three closest TSC's and the Feed Store)
"What's your ETA, Mom?"
(time estimate compared to previously triangulated position ie ... does she have enough time to stop at TSC before arriving home?)
"We don't have room in the coop, Mom." (apparently, they've figured out how fast I can pick and run!)
"But I wasn't ... "
"Mom. No. Just, NO!"
"Sigh, ... I'm on my way home, now ..."
What they don't know is that I've finally figured out how to hook up the incubator ... and my pullets are laying!
Bwaahaaahaaahaaa!

be very careful........ Incubating is Very Addictive.....Worse than any known Drug.
all of a sudden you will be looking at all those beautiful eggs thinking..... mmmm.... I wonder What the chick in that egg looks like??
Oh We can't eat that egg its a turkey!
OH my what a beautiful duck egg I gotta see the baby inside!
I Need another Blue egg layer, I will just put these 12 blue eggs in the bator....

 

[MROO]

be very careful........ Incubating is Very Addictive.....Worse than any known Drug.
all of a sudden you will be looking at all those beautiful eggs thinking..... mmmm.... I wonder What the chick in that egg looks like??
Oh We can't eat that egg its a turkey!
OH my what a beautiful duck egg I gotta see the baby inside!
I Need another Blue egg layer, I will just put these 12 blue eggs in the bator....

FUNNY! And THAT, Folks, is one of the more insidious ways that Chicken Math sneaks into our homes and coops ...
Actually, incubating is a lot safer route for me than buying peeps.
First off, when I incubate, I know exactly what the peeps will look like, because they'll all be Nankin Bantams. They're they're not auto-sexing and their plumage is all pretty uniform, even as adults. As adults, they look so similar that DD is the only one who can tell some of our hens apart without checking leg bands.

Second, adding other peeps means adding other breeds, and our coop and run space is maxed out. Since the Nankins are a conservation flock, we can't really mix them with other breeds. Any new hatchlings we decide to keep can go straight into the flock.

Third, and most importantly in terms of Chicken Math, we have some 4H families waiting for Nankin peeps - all straight run, of course, so we don't get overrun here at home. We learned, the hard way, that TSC peeps can be hard to place once they're past the beady-eyed-fuzzy-butt stage, especially cockerels. That's actually why my "extra" coop is now a bachelor pad/frat house!

Which brings me to the final point. I have absolutely no problem with not eating the Nankins' eggs. I simply can't do it! I'll eat eggs from absolutely any of our other bantams, but not my Nannies; not even in the dead of winter, when there aren't enough eggs to justify running the 'bator, and even if there were, they're all dead from the cold, anyway. Nankins are so critically endangered that, to me, it feels like the equivalent of scrambling a Bald Eagle egg! Ridiculously silly, I know ... but there it is! {{{...Sigh...}}}

 

[Vhope77]

Buying a cheap thermometer for my incubator

 

[BY Bob]

@BY Bob @micstrachan To stop the spread of diseases - its not only chickens but pigs and every other 'farm' type animal. it is to prevent animals from contracting diseases from contaminated foods and passing it on.
The Animal and Plant Health Agency state: This is to prevent the introduction and spread of potentially devastating notifiable animal diseases, such as African and Classical Swine Fever, and Foot and Mouth disease. These diseases cause significant animal health and welfare problems and damage to the economy.

If I want to give my birds scraps, I have to do so before it reaches my home or any home for that matter, i.e if I buy carrots take them into my garden via my back gate, peel them outside and feed the peel to my birds without the peel having ever entered mine or any home then I am within the law but if I were to take the carrots into my home, peel them and then feed the peel to my birds I would be breaking the law and I believe this law carries a two year prison sentence.

It is also illegal to feed chickens imported mealworms, or any mealworms not farmed in the UK, as it is impossible to know if the worms have ingested meat proteins, so the worm could be carrying BSE (mad cows disease) which could be passed onto humans through consumption of eggs or bird meat. However it is ok to feed imported mealworms to other pets and also to wild birds.

Was this law enacted in response to the mad cow outbreak? And as I read on I got my answer. I was way behind on this one.

 

[Abriana]

When I first got chicks, I bought chicks. Just chicks and naught else. No feeder, heatlamp, waterer, food. What is a brooder? XD I had to run back out.

That wasn't my worst mistake, but it was the first and funniest!

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Was this law enacted in response to the mad cow outbreak? And as I read on I got my answer. I was way behind on this one.

The no scraps law is because of the foot and mouth outbreak in 2001.
The ban on foreign mealworms is to prevent mad cow desease

 

[BY Bob]

The no scraps law is because of the foot and mouth outbreak in 2001.
The ban on foreign mealworms is to prevent mad cow desease

Thanks for clarifying. I assume it was in the news there. I would not even have known to check for any such law here.

 

[paintedChix]

Which brings me to the final point. I have absolutely no problem with not eating the Nankins' eggs. I simply can't do it! I'll eat eggs from absolutely any of our other bantams, but not my Nannies; not even in the dead of winter, when there aren't enough eggs to justify running the 'bator, and even if there were, they're all dead from the cold, anyway. Nankins are so critically endangered that, to me, it feels like the equivalent of scrambling a Bald Eagle egg! Ridiculously silly, I know ... but there it is! {{{...Sigh...}}}

Sooo - silly ?... What do you do with those "dead eggs", if you don't incubate them and you don't eat them?