What's Your First Piece of Advice for Newbies?

[gtaus]

Many great comments on this thread. My first piece of advice would be "Do Something." Followed up by the permaculture philosophy of "Observe and Interact."

To me, nothing matters until you actually decide to do something. Years ago, I heard someone say that "Even God cannot steer a parked car."

 

[jspeese]

Biosecurity! Chickens get diseases that can't be cured, and there aren't enough vaccines to cover everything, even if we want to follow the maximum vaccination plans.
It's possible to be very lucky, and never bring home a sick bird from outside, but don't count on it.
Loosing the entire flock to a disease that came in on just that one sick bird is terrible.
No bird comes back here, no bird comes in except chicks from safe hatcheries, and I'm just generally paranoid about it.
It's luck but especially good management and being careful.
Mary

I agree with you, Mary. Biosecurity is important. Best to get chicks or older birds from a known, reliable source. Most vets are "pekinese-pomeranian-persian cat people" and have neither the materials nor the means to diagnose and treat poultry. And all vets are expensive. If you take a sick bird to a state diagnostic lab, it's free, but in order to diagnose the problem they destroy the bird. And it may take a while before they get back to you with the results. I have read anyway (don't know if it's true) that many poultry showpersons actually destroy a bird that's been to a show rather than risk bringing home a disease.

 

[Folly's place]

I never take birds to shows, or bring home birds from other flocks.
When I visit a poultry show (and they are fun to see!) I park away from the crowd, wear clothes and shoes that haven't been to my coop, and when home, Everything that I wore, shoes on up, goes right into the washer.
Visiting other flocks, the same thing.
Be careful, and lucky, and avoid disasters.
That thirty day quarantine for new birds is better than nothing, but doesn't cover everything, especially something like Marek's disease.
Mary

 

[Parront]

Ideally, you should keep only the top 10 or 20 percent of your birds. That means you buy a hundred chicks and butcher all but a dozen or so.

So true. The keepers are great, the rest are tasty! You really need to order 25, even from a good breeder, to get the 2 or 3 best hens and 1 breeding cock. Even if you are not breeding, not all chicks are great layers or even nice pets. New folks are not able to only keep the best due to lack of experience with any chickens.

 

[jspeese]

Predator protection! That was our problem at first, being overly optimistic and misinformed.
Mary

I'd rate predator protection (and building a secure coop and pen big enough to accommodate all of your birds comfortably) as number one too. In my experience hawks are the worst, because they attack from the air during the day. So confining the birds to the coop at night does no good. You need to have a large run with a top. Second on my list is dogs. A small to medium-sized aggressive dog can kill any species of poultry, even a goose. And build your pen out of turkey wire or hardware cloth, any dog can tear chicken wire and in humid, moist climates it rusts. I've never had much luck with free ranging because of hawks. A good fence around a pasture will keep out dogs, but not a hawk. l'll go out on a limb here and freely admit that I don't like either hawks or dogs because of the damage they do to poultry and livestock.

 

[sourland]

Define your goals, plan, and make your coop far larger than you think you will ever need.

 

[jspeese]

Define your goals, plan, and make your coop far larger than you think you will ever need.

That's true too, especially if your chickens are for utility rather than pets. A hen lays less and less each year. If you want a continuous supply of eggs, eventually you're going to have to replace them. So you'll need space to start and raise the new chicks until you get rid of the old hens that are no longer productive. If you replace them "naturally", a good broody hen could hatch ten or more chicks, all of which are going to need space until you get rid of the cockerels and some of the older hens. And I've found that it works best to put a broody hen in a separate place with her nest so she'll always get back on the right nest and to keep other hens from trying to share it. So you need space for that. I think 3 to 4 square feet of coop space is adequate if you live in an area with mild weather but it might not be if you live in an area that gets a lot of bad (i.e., cold rainy and wet and consequently muddy) weather and your chickens will want to spend more time in the coop than in the run. I've seen chickens venture out in poor weather but they shouldn't ever be forced to stay out in it (esp. ones lower in the pecking order) for lack of coop space.

 

[LizzzyJo]

That's true too, especially if your chickens are for utility rather than pets. A hen lays less and less each year. If you want a continuous supply of eggs, eventually you're going to have to replace them. So you'll need space to start and raise the new chicks until you get rid of the old hens that are no longer productive. If you replace them "naturally", a good broody hen could hatch ten or more chicks, all of which are going to need space until you get rid of the cockerels and some of the older hens. And I've found that it works best to put a broody hen in a separate place with her nest so she'll always get back on the right nest and to keep other hens from trying to share it. So you need space for that. I think 3 to 4 square feet of coop space is adequate if you live in an area with mild weather but it might not be if you live in an area that gets a lot of bad (i.e., cold rainy and wet and consequently muddy) weather and your chickens will want to spend more time in the coop than in the run. I've seen chickens venture out in poor weather but they shouldn't ever be forced to stay out in it (esp. ones lower in the pecking order) for lack of coop space.

Yes! The extra space for spending the winter indoors is rare knowledge. I learned the hard way that chickens hate snow. Combating winter boredom when they refuse to free range and their coop is ‘just big enough’ can be hard!

 

[Parront]

My 2cents: learn about electric fence before you design or build, so you can plan to have it or not based on an informed decision. No matter what else your plans are, they are over when a dog or other predator kills your birds, and electric fencing is very effective.

 

[The Angry Hen]

Chicken keeping is not for the faint of the heart- nor should you put all your eggs in one basket. The worst thing to do when you start your journey is assume (this is never a good thing to do in life with anything).
Don't assume a certain perch will work for them, don't assume you'll have enough space, don't assume your hens won't go broody, don't assume your rooster will be friendly, don't assume you can free range, don't assume that selling eggs will make a good business, etc...

You can never predict nature. No science can do this either- the best you can do is what you think is best for you and your birds along with listening to what others have to say before you jump to any conclusions.