My parents made all the big mistakes; we got chickens when I was twelve, so I watched as they raised seven RIR cockerels to a year old (luckily, I dropped them in the goat pen on a whim, so they stayed in there and the hens were free of them) and then tried to butcher them. First, we chased them down. Then dad killed them. Then we scalded them in boiling water, just as his father had when he was a kid. Funnily enough, the chickens came out tough and partially-cooked. Who'd a' thunk?
We kept the feeders full all of the time. No problems with little birds; many problems with rats. I hate rats. My chickens get fed twice a day and then the feed gets put away. Every so often, I put poison up under the roof where the chickens can't get it, just in case. Because rats are bad. I'm looking into getting a small terrier. I hate rats.
We brought bantam chicks inside (homicidal broody) and put them in an uncovered brooder. The dog thought they were funny-looking, so he picked them up and dropped them in random places. Some of them, he crushed to death. Not intentionally, of course; he was generally a good dog, and he never killed any other chicken, but we were pretty angry at him.
We fed our dogs whole eggs. These dogs had access to the coops (guard/watchdogs) and soon, egg production started dropping. (???) Luckily, border collie crosses are sensitive sorts, and it only took a two smacks on the muzzle to get the message across once I figured out what was going on.
Galvanised metal waterer. Overnight. In thirty below weather. Need I say more? (In case I do, the water expanded and split the weld on the bottom. Dad's a welder, but he won't touch galvanised steel because of the fumes and how thin this stuff was, so we scrapped it for a rubber pan.)
We allowed a hen to brood herself nearly to death.
We allowed a hen to brood on upwards of thirty eggs because she just kept collecting them.
Funnily enough, and contrary to the expereinces of everyone else on here, we ignored biosecurity and never had a problem (except with lice and one case of Mareks.) Free-ranged without limits and only ever lost one hen.
