5 Deadly Mistakes New Chicken Owners Make
There are 5 deadly mistakes that many new chicken owners make. We made a few of these ourselves but, luckily, we didn’t lose any birds. These are all equally important to know if raising backyard chickens.
Not Enough Room
You should allow at least 3 square feet per bird in the coop or hen house. I attended a class a few weeks ago sponsored by Texas A&M and they suggest 5 square feet per bird. The more room you can give your chickens the happier they will be. Happy, healthy birds will lay more eggs.
In the run, it’s suggested a minimum of 10 square feet per bird but 15 is preferred. If your chickens free-range most of the day, you could get by with a little less.
Why so much room? When too crowded, they get stressed and irritated. They’ll start pecking each other, causing injury. They enjoy being outside, scratching, and foraging so the more room they have the better.
Chickens have a hierarchy called the pecking order. There’s always a top bird. Ours is Trudy our White Leghorn. She gets the prime spot on the roost bar and generally gets to eat first. The other girls stay out of her way. Now, she’s not a total B. Since we don’t have a rooster, she’s taken on the role of the flock protector. She even crowed the other day!
Chickens will also pick on each other when they are bored. Giving enough room helps this plus it gives the girls at the bottom of the pecking order a place to escape. Check out my blog on The Dark Side of Chickens for more info.
Putting Small Chicks with Mature Birds
Chickens are prey animals, so they look at any other animal, even a small chick, as something that wants to hurt them. They will peck the new chicks, sometimes causing injury and even death.
If you have an established flock and decide to get new baby chicks. You need to keep them separate until the babies are close to the same size as the rest of the flock. When adding new birds to your flock, the birds look at the new ones as intruders. They’ve already established their pecking order and have their little family.
You want the new birds to be about the same size so they can defend themselves. Be sure and check out my blog on Adding new Chickens to your Flock for more info on how to integrate them.
Not Quarantining New Birds
One of the mistakes we made was not quarantining our new birds properly when we got them. I had heard that we would need to introduce them slowly and with supervision so we set up a separate area in the run. They were blocked off but could still see each other. This way the established flock wouldn’t peck them.
However, I didn’t know about the respiratory illnesses chickens could get or infectious gastrointestinal diseases.
To protect your chickens, you should quarantine new birds for a minimum of thirty days and six weeks would be better. They should be at least 30 feet away. During this time, you can monitor for any illness that hasn’t presented itself yet.
Setting up a Dust Bath
We figured this out pretty quickly. Our new babies started rolling around in the dirt in a seizure-like activity. So, I got online and found out that birds will dust bathe to keep their feathers clean and smother any parasites, like lice and mites. I hadn’t really thought about how they stay clean. I kind of assumed in water like birds or ducks.
Dust bathing is important for their overall health. Lice and mites can suck the blood out of your bird, causing death, so be sure and check out my blog on Setting up your Dust Bath.
If you set up a dust bath area, hopefully, they will not dig and bathe in your garden or other areas of your yard.
Being Unaware of Predators
I knew we needed to provide a safe place for them to sleep. Plus, we have dogs, so I knew we needed to protect them from the dogs, but I didn’t know that everything wants to eat your chickens.
Not only the big predators like bears, coyotes, bobcats, and owls but also raccoons, skunks, opossum, foxes, weasels, hawks, and many more. The list goes on. When I say everything wants to eat your chicken, I mean everything!
So, to keep your chickens safe, you need to Predator Proof Your Chicken Coop. There are many things you can do like add a skirt around the edges to keep animals from digging in or burying six to twelve inches of hardware cloth around the perimeter. It’s also a good idea to know the predators in your area so you know what measures you should take. Be sure and check out my blog on Common Chicken Predators.
So, these are just a few of the things I didn’t know that could be deadly mistakes. I’m still learning something new every day. Like how they communicate with each other or how they can’t really see at night or how aggressive these sweet little balls of fluff can be. I really just thought they pecked the ground happily looking for bugs all day. Little did I know!
If you have to deal with any of these issues that result in a wound, be sure and check out my blog post on Wound Care for Chickens.
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We tried raising chicks once, but the raccoons and foxes got them. You really do need to make sure your coop is predator proof.
Great info for a beginner owner. It’s always a challenge to keep the little ones safe– no matter the animal!
As i read your post it brought back great memories because my grandparents raised chickens and i learned so much from them. You write so well and the pics and everything else is in detail. Thanks very much. Jerry Godoinho
Thank you Jerry!
Such great insight for those who are thinking about rearing chickens as pets or for eggs. It highlights the humane way to treat the chickens, which in turn will improve the quality of their existence and their eggs.
It’s nice knowing that our chickens are eating healthy and they are happy. I really believe their eggs are better due to this.
Great tips you have here. I have a friend who lost almost half of her chicks to fox roaming around the area. Unfortunately, she had to get the permission of the county to shoot at it before the menace stopped.
We’ve been talking about getting chickens for our garden but will need a very secure pen for them, thanks to a neighbourhood possum. Really enjoyed this post and finding out more information about caring for them.
Definitely need a secure pen but also need something to protect your plants from the chickens. The girls love our vegetables. We’ve had to put chicken wire around to keep them from eating or digging up.
Great tips for beginner chicken owners. Predators will try their best to find their way in. Deciding to own chickens is a big commitment that requires forethought and ongoing maintenance.
The predators can be tough. We have a lot of hawks where I live and I worry often even about my little Yorkshire terrier. So much to know about caring for these little chicks that I learn something new each read!
Not having enough room for each bird is the easiest way to create issues and cause all kinds of bad things! Love how you highlighted that as number one. Chickens are social creatures, so it never really seems like this would be an issue, but it definitely is. I didn’t know about the dust bath myself. I don’t really know that I’ve ever taken the time to think about how chickens keep clean. Now I will be though. My husband and I were just having a conversation about chickens during our walk last night. I’m wanting to move to an area where I can have chickens and a garden. Needless to say, I’m getting antsy. Lol.
Oh my goodness Erica! I can’t wait for you to get chickens. You will love them.
I’m glad you take such good care of your birds. I wish it was common practice across all the bigger egg industries to treat them as well as you do.
I do too Megan! We love our birds. I had no idea how much personality they would have.
My brother had got a small chicken once and I remember how it got chased down and eventually killed by a large cat! 😦 So definitely one must keep their chickens safe from all kinds of predators!
This had great tips to make people aware of what to think about before bringing home baby chicks.
Ugh, the predators! We are currently reinforcing our large chicken run because we have had multiple problems with predators (most likely foxes but you are right…could be so many types of animals). We lost multiple flocks last year. Restarting again this spring. Here’s hoping our reinforcements work this time!! Never a dull moment. Thanks for this great article!
Predators! Being in the city, I don’t have too many but I still worry! Good luck with your new chickies.
This is very informational! I have chickens too, and this is all great to know for those who are just getting started raising them. I wish I would have know these things a few years ago when I first got my babies. Thanks for sharing!