Joe had two answers to my
question about what he wished he’d known about chickens when he
first started. He wrote:
“I wish I knew about
baby chicken leg problems like spraddle
leg. By the time we realized something was horribly wrong,
too much time had passed to be able to fix it.
“The second is more
related to the picture. I wish I knew how hard integration of
baby chicks was. When it was time to start raising generation 2,
we figured the maternal instinct would make it easy to let them
adopt the new babies. By the time we realized that the grown
birds would peck to death the wee ones, we had to learn about
segregation.
“We hadn’t allowed
for a coop design to have two partitions inside the hen house. I
was able to split the yard, but every day I have to haul the
little ones back into a cramped makeshift coop area for the
night till they get bigger. This would be much easier if I had
built the henhouse with a removable partition and two doors.
“Thanks for the
great product, we love having low maintenance clean water for
our birds thanks to a DIY
kit!”
baby chicken leg problems like spraddle
leg. By the time we realized something was horribly wrong,
too much time had passed to be able to fix it.
“The second is more
related to the picture. I wish I knew how hard integration of
baby chicks was. When it was time to start raising generation 2,
we figured the maternal instinct would make it easy to let them
adopt the new babies. By the time we realized that the grown
birds would peck to death the wee ones, we had to learn about
segregation.
“We hadn’t allowed
for a coop design to have two partitions inside the hen house. I
was able to split the yard, but every day I have to haul the
little ones back into a cramped makeshift coop area for the
night till they get bigger. This would be much easier if I had
built the henhouse with a removable partition and two doors.
“Thanks for the
great product, we love having low maintenance clean water for
our birds thanks to a DIY
kit!”
This is one of my
favorite entries so far because Joe’s second point was also on my
list of things I wish I’d known. Maybe this post can save
other new chicken-owners from repeating our mistakes!
