I saw this question on another poultry forum and thought it was actually a good question. So I am stealing it...lol
Name 3 things you regret or wish you had done differently with your poultry. As we all know hindsight is 20/20 .....
Ok, here is my list.
1. Wish I had not ordered straight run on my hatchery chicks.
Paying a little extra to have the breeds I wanted sexed would definitely be worth it. (I only had my brahmas and my blue cochins sexed). I hatched chicks too so that alone gave me enough roosters for the flock and the freezer.
2. Stick with just chickens,atleast in the very beginning. Add only one breed/type of poultry at a time.
It had been many years since I had poultry and I had forgotten a lot of what a hassle it can be at times. Multiply that by chickens (standard and bantam), turkeys, guineas, and runner ducks all brooding inside at once.... lol.
For me I don't think the turkeys are cost effective. They waste a lot of feed with scratching etc...Totally free ranging hasn't worked for them because they refuse to not sleep unless they are with the chickens.
The runner ducks are mud freaks and aren't content unless they have mud to play in... go figure. Yet I still have the urge to have muscovies for next season... I'm a sick woman. Although I will say the runners lay nice BIG eggs!!
The rest of the family hates the guineas....it's the sound they make. I only had a pair and lost the female who was by far my noisier as she called a lot to the male. But as we all know any change in surroundings makes the guinea freak out and sound the alarm...lol
3. Not being able to just stick to one or two breeds of chickens. Just pick a favorite and stick with that rather than have sooooo many different kinds. I am sooooo weak !!
Okay, come on tell me your regrets or what you would have done differently !!
Julie
This message was edited Sep 27, 2007 3:49 PM
Regrets
I can only think of one thing. I would have gotten my chickens sooner.
We had chickens for a couple of years when my son was small and my husband was a Navy recruiter. We didn't have annother chance to keep chickens untill he retired (for some odd reason they frown on chickens in Navy housing). Then, it wasn't till three years ago, when all I wanted for my
50th birthday was a peacock, that I got my chickens. (I know, go figure, but in a man's mind, peacocks, chickens, they're all the same...)
He finially got me my peacock last summer.
Oh, and maybe I wouldn't have let him talk me into that 50 Cornish X's he got last year. The were the dumbest birds on earth and we STILL have some in the freezer.
I love my mixed breeds, I have americaunnas, buffies and barred rocks, with an occasional rodie and a gaggle of silly silkies. My rooster is americaunna and we get some odd chicks, but you should see my eggs! I get everything from pale blue to avacado green to kaki to almost chocolate colored eggs, and every shade in between. I love serving children the silkie eggs.
Things I have learned: Nothing is more joyfull and a bunch of baby ducks. SIlkies like to cuddle. Turkies can fly. And sometimes it's better to cage your gardens and let the chickens roam free.
I definitely plan to cage my garden MORE next year. I have some daylilies, iris, etc I should move when I get a spare moment. Don't have many of those these days... I'm at work typing...lol.
Julie
My only Regret for this year was that I didnt Study and prepare better for raising Turkeys! I had absolutely the worst luck raising them! Young Poults just seemed to keel over for no reason and older ones just seemed to waste away and not eat. I just do not know enough about them to try again anytime soon!
I've heard the same thing about turkeys from more than one source....including a neighbor who has tried repeatedly. I had good luck, bought 9-day old chicks via mail and only lost one. I expected a higher death rate to be honest.
The guineas faired worse for me...shipping was rough on the lil buggers. I think I might try eggs hatched under one of my hens in the spring... MAYBE!!
Julie
This has definitely been a learning experience for me!! I would have started earlier in the summer. We got our first chicks at the end of August and just when it was getting time to move them outside we had an unusual cold snap. The enormous dog kennel we had inside was too small for all of them and our transition coop we planned to move them into while building our big coop was not weather proof. So we moved the older more feathered out chicks outside and left the little ones inside. If we had started in spring, we would have had lots of beautiful weather to move them all outside. And of course our new luxury condo for the chickens will be done!
Which leads me to lesson number two. We started with 6 chicks, 3 barred rocks and 3 rir. All the same age and size. A few died and two were roosters that went back to the feed store. That would have been REALLY smart to stop there, but NOOOOOOOOO. We added 8 more a few at a time of different sizes and ages. Apparently it was MIRACULOUS how well they all adjusted to one another. Until now. The six big ones got put out and then 3 more got put out but the last three stayed inside for 2 weeks until the weather changed yesterday. We put them out yesterday and the three youngest/smallest are hanging out together and not really integrating with the others. When they are out of the coop in the yard, they run around together and lay on top of each other in the dust and have a great time together, but in the coop they go way off in a corner together. Hope that gets better!!
And lastly, we got all our chicks from the local feed store and my golden laced Wyandotte is definitely crossed with a barred something or other. Her chest and some of the tips of her back feathers have white barring on them. And my blue cochin is definitely silver, not blue!
So.... we will be ordering directly from a hathchery, all at the same time and there wil be no replacing of chicks next year!!!!
And heres one of my supposedly blue cochin
Blue often looks silverish. It's hard to tell but from that angle it almost looks like the blue is underlayed with buff highlighting...... Maybe wait until the adult feathers are in.
The gold laced, maybe just bad breeding ?? My eyes are bad enough that I wouldn't be able to notice that little bit of white...lol.
Julie
well, i got my chicks from meyer hatchery. love them. wish I knew about them sooner. Had bad luck at the feed store when I went that route a few years ago.
Would have handled everyone even more than I did to keep them tame.
WOuld have built the new coop years ago, as it is SOooooooo much easier to deal with the chickens in a better space.
Would have listened to the dh and put down a taped down tarp on the porch floor so I wouldn't have had to clean up all the poop when the chicks lived there for a few days. lol!
Would have checked the free chickens I got from a friend for lice! oops! instead I had to bathe everyone and go through the hassle of delicing the gang, instead of just two chickens.
otherwise I've been a pretty happy camper!
I agree - I would have had my ducks sexed before coming home from the hatchery.....I'm paying for it now.....with 7 drakes & 3 hens.....oops! :) lol
We have a few Blue, Black & Splash LF Cochins. Discerning the Splash from the Blue is not so hard. Some hatcheries figure you're lucky to get a Splash tossed in with the Blues. I'm in total agreement with the hatcheries.