What were your worst mistakes when you first started?

[EggWalrus]

Oh my! Adorable to say the least. It’s no wonder we are all so drawn to these little boogers.

Those are some pretty babies!

 

[Celticdragonfly]

For everyone on this thread - thanks so much for sharing all this. I've been reading through it all today. I'm grateful to say that spending the last year reading BYC and just finally now having chicks has helped me avoid a number of these. Of course, that just has me worrying about what other ones I'm going to come up with ....

 

[Stacyoung13]

For everyone on this thread - thanks so much for sharing all this. I've been reading through it all today. I'm grateful to say that spending the last year reading BYC and just finally now having chicks has helped me avoid a number of these. Of course, that just has me worrying about what other ones I'm going to come up with ....

A true chicken mom/dad never stops worrying!!

 

[aart]

For everyone on this thread - thanks so much for sharing all this. I've been reading through it all today. I'm grateful to say that spending the last year reading BYC and just finally now having chicks has helped me avoid a number of these. Of course, that just has me worrying about what other ones I'm going to come up with ....

Same here, it really helped!
....and don't worry too much, if other stuff does come up,
you'll snap your fingers and go ....Oh, Yeah! I know the answer to that, or where to search for it.

 

[BY Bob]

Oh my! Adorable to say the least. It’s no wonder we are all so drawn to these little boogers.

Thank you. Chicks are irresistible.

 

[Hugz21]

I've only been a chicken-mama for 7 weeks but I am already morphing into a crazy chicken lady. And I've already set a few steps wrong.
1. Getting day-old chicks in Autumn (in Australia). More time in the garage because it was getting too chilly outside.
2. Not takin into account just how quickly chicks grow! I thought the brooder box/big plastic tub would be sufficient to house the little fuzzballs until they'd go into the big coop outside. NOPE! I had to do a mad crafting experiment using an old dog crate, a plastic pallet, some second hand snake mesh and some artificial turf and constructed an interim enclosure.
3. Getting way too attached to them before confirming they were females. Not allowed roosters in my council area.

 

[Celticdragonfly]

3. Getting way too attached to them before confirming they were females. Not allowed roosters in my council area.

If anybody knows how to avoid that, let me know.

 

[Mimi13]

If anybody knows how to avoid that, let me know.

Don’t get chickens?!?

 

[Ninjasquirrel]

If anybody knows how to avoid that, let me know.

You could buy presexed pullets. That what we did. If you buy straight runs you usually end up with at least ONE rooster...if you are lucky.

 

[Mimi13]

Don’t get chickens?!?

I’m sorry @Celticdragonfly, my post above may have come across as rude, which it was not meant to be. After seeing the post following mine, maybe I read your post wrong. I thought your post was asking how “not to get attached to the chicks,” which is impossible for me. I get attached to every single one that’ll let me. So my answer was to “not get chicks.”

Maybe you did mean “how to not get males.”

Truly I’m sorry.