Never let your chickens have access to firearms. A chicken with a shotgun is a bad combination.

Don't use poison for vermin, use hot red pepper flakes mixed in the feed. Chickens aren't bothered by it, but vermin generally hate it and won't revisit.

Been feeding tomatoes for 25 years. The plants are the poisonous part not the fruit

I check my chicken's for parasites every day, I'm 9 yrs old,I want to be a vet when I grow up.

As a firefighter I have seen coops and barns burn with the lamp still secured. Dust stirred up by flapping wings, etc. can ignite easily. Good video!

I'd like to add for hawks, if you're in an area where you know crows or ravens are nearby, if you leave out food they like (pretty much anything you'd feed a chicken, peanuts I've heard are a favorite, I've used bits of old bread) in an area where they can easily see it, you can convince them to make your yard part of their territory and they'll help keep hawks away. I haven't had a single hawk attack since the crows moved into this area.

1 HUGE thing that you forgot to mention is proper ventilation for the coop, especially during winter because if it isn't ventilated enough then ammonia gas will build up in the coop and kill all the chickens.

For over 20 years we've thrown all of our kitchen scraps in the chicken yard; coffee grounds, tomatoes, avocado, onions, citrus peels... if you keep your hens well fed, they only eat the scraps that interest them, everything else is made into compost

Empty buckets are one of the most dangerous rookie mistakes. At night when they try to perch on empty plastic buckets. As a result the bucket flips on them which typically suffocates them it cooks them alive too if it’s in summer. So be very very careful around big empty plastic buckets.

A had a couple of hens that were past producing eggs so I retired them to the hay barn where they became excellent mousers.

In todays times…. We need and appreciate videos like this one. Informative, clear and no bull crap to bore us with babbling phrases. Great content.

Chickens are very good at hiding injuries and illness since they’re prey animals, so don’t want to show any signs of vulnerability to predators. Unfortunately this means it’s harder for humans to spot the warning signs before it’s too late :(

I had my chickens get out of their run and eat my roses, which are okay. However, one got into my front yard where my hydrangeas grow and ate a bunch of petals and she just laid down and after a few hours she was dead. So I make sure that none of my landscaping is deadly for chickens: no hydrangeas, azaleas, allium, daffodils or tulips, or wisteria. I have lots of hostas and roses. They can also have a lot of the flowers that you grow in your vegetable gardens such as marigolds, nasturtiums, petunias and zinnias.

I accidentally killed a chicken That was sick by giving it water with a syringe. Not aware that they have a hole in their tongues. She took it fine, but the last one I was going to give her evidently was too much or too fast and she threw it up and choked to death very quickly . Was devastating to watch and will never forget that vision.

Excellent knowledge and guidance to secure the poultry. Sending you love all the way from Zambia.🇿🇲❤️

What a great video! Thank you so much. A lot of people don't realize how awesome chickens are. You have no idea how many times I've heard someone tell another person who has lost a pet, "Oh, it was just a dog/cat/chicken." Animals are absolutely incredible. Every single one of my chickens are amazing and I love them. Thank you for making this video to help keep our babies safe.

Appreciated this; thank you. I've been keeping hens 20-some years. I'm mindful of overfeeding treats like scratch, but in the winter when they need a few extra calories, spreading a little scratch on a couple of boards right when they come off the roost is an easy way to check each bird's behavior. If everyone is active and eating, great. Birds who aren't are worth a second look. (Bonus: The pecking and soft talk of hens first thing in the morning has to be one of nature's sweetest sounds.)

I have just subscribed after watching your channel from start to finish. I just aquired a coup with seven chickens and really enjoy taking care of them. Thanks for posting this video.

Wow there's a lot of care that goes into raising those little guys. Thanks

i had a bunch of whole mixed grains i gave to my mum to feed my chickens when i went on a trip. I came back and my mum told me she cooked thr grains into porridge and ate it herself, and said that the chickens can find their own food. The chickens laid less eggs than they used to for that time period. Shes never looking after my chickens again, and yes, this is the same woman who said goldfish doesnt need food either, they eat particles in the water. Guess who'll be living in a nursing home by herself (she is quite malicious and refuses to learn unless she faces consequences)

We've had solar flood lights that are motion activated at night when fox and other predators in our area immediately leave when activated. We also have a thicker wire for our coop that goes under the fence border with small boulders covered with dirt for added security.

Very practical informative and compact video, really love to see the precautions we should follow on our farm, extra care can make things better and profitable 😊😊😊

Thanks for this direct, no nonsense video without unnecessary chatter. Every new chicken owner needs to see this

Great video! Informative and enjoyable, a tough combination to create. Thank you for your efforts to educate new chicken owners. It's almost Easter and a lot of innocent new owners are out there, waiting to be disappointed when their new chicks don't make it past the first week.

another strategy is: don’t feed your chickens inside the coop. The coop is just for sleeping and laying. keeps the coop a lot cleaner too; u know, if you have that option. Also I planted my apple trees in their ranging area, and they often eat windfall apples, but never the seeds they always leave the core. They can also eat milkweed and poke weed and bitter nightshade berries. As long as you’re feeding them they know what they can, and can’t eat.

Thanks for this--it's good to know what to expect when I get chickens. So looking forward to it :D

You left out a very destructive chicken killer, the Bear. I just had a black bear kill all 8 of mine, 2 Roosters, 6 hens. I had an upper enclosed coop with a hardwired bottom coop with an exit door into an outside pen area. The upper coop had hardwired doors on it with lift up doors to open in the summer and close down in the winter. The Coop design worked really well for 4 years allowing the chickens to stay warm in winter, cool in summer, locked up while I was gone and freed when I was home. Then one night while I was asleep around 3-4 am the bear ripped the door off the upper Coop and apparently some of the birds got caught others went down in the hardwired part of the Coop and the bear ripped it open getting them. I found a place in the woods with feathers and all sixteen sets of wings were left. I've been wondering if it was more than one bear since all of the birds were killed and eaten.

I use some old chainlink fence (free on CL) under the run about 6" inside and the rest outside. Planted grass on top of the fencing to make it easier to walk on.

Thank You So Very Much For This And I Learned Allot From This Video 🙏🏽❤️

I left a bowl in the chicken run since I was busy doing other things to go back and get it. When I came back to get it one of my 2 month old chicks was suffocated underneath it. 😱😱😭 we have all of the above toxic wild plants and flowers including tons of elderberry and our chickens seem to never have a problem with any of them. Like you said, chickens are smart about what they can and can’t eat.

Good information. Thanks

My chickens ate the heck outta my tomato plants leaves. All six of them were a ok and did this throughout 110 degree heat, they are way more tough to kill than you guys think

I’d add something about introducing new chickens to the flock. Surprising how many just throw them together and expect good results. Helpful video!

Great and informative video!

Thanks. Perfect presentation

Nice carry on with the good work, good weekend all the best for all.

Thanks. This is a great video for a starter like me

Thank you for the tips

Very helpful. Thanks

I do a weekly health check on all our chickens. These are some of the questions from my health assessment: Have you had any changes to bowel or bladder elimination? Have you been feeling like life is not worth living? Are things you used to enjoy doing no longer pleasurable? Have you used any tobacco products in the last week? How many drinks have you had in the last week? Do you wear a seatbelt while in motor vehicles? Have you seen a dentist in the last 6 months? Do you feel safe in the coop? Are there any firearms in the coop? How many hours per day do you spend on social media? What are your main sources of news? Have any of the other chickens expressed any extreme views or conspiracy theories such as humans wanting to steal their eggs or eat them? Have any chickens mentioned possible violence against humans? If you encounter an extremist chicken, do you know how to report them to the humans? Would you feel safe doing so? Are you aware of the 'Segregated for Safety' program the humans offer to avoid retaliation? Is there anything else the humans could be doing to facilitate your laying more or gaining weight? What are the 5 nicest things humans do for you? How have humans improved your life? Which human is your favorite, and why? What 3 things can you do to help the humans? Do you feel qualified to apply for the 'Superior and Gifted Chicken' program taking place behind the barn? What 5 things can you do in the next week to make you better qualified for the 'Superior and Gifted Chicken' program? Our chicken Wellness Center has been providing an optimal, healthy free-range environment for chickens to actualize their most productive selves by leveraging the full range of psychological, physical, and spiritual development since 1984. We envision continuing to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in poultry to support Agenda 2030 and perfecting sustainable inter-species relationships and mutually-beneficial outcomes across the full agricultural-business spectrum.

Thank you! This helps so much!!❤

Don't use poison ever. There are way better alternatives with trapss and more. Poison gets into other wildlife and ALWAYS a risk for pets and livestock too. Potatoes and tomatoes themselves are not toxic but the plants are.

I love watching these videos. And learning from them😊

Great info. Thanks!

My chickens live in a winter-free country together with parrots and rabbits. The only enemy is the bad chicken feed from the shop. I have now deleted that. Now I only feed boiled potatoes, rice, some oatmeal, salads, papaya, grapes and banana. The aviary is huge and the floor is covered with grass. In an extra part of the aviary there is a compost heap and stones and wood to turn because the delicious worms and termites are underneath. Sometimes a rat snake snakes its way through the aviary, but I'm always quicker at collecting the eggs. I have 2 plastic tubs in the aviary that always provide clear water through aquatic plants. the chickens love it

Yep heat lamps can totally be dangerous I should know because I lost 7 animals plus my coop, food and supplies to a fire two months ago right now I just use the heating plate don't worry about heat lamps right now because it's summer but securing the heat lamp is one thing definitely gonna fix when the coop is done

Both my dogs were old when i got my first chickens, they learned very fast and now are part of the flock.

Worth noting for drinkers: there are automatic-refilling options and chicken drip-feed drinkers available now (called the "chicken fountain") which seem to work well. They're directly attached to a hose so they pull water from there.

I use food grade DE sparingly, food grade Lime and food grade pdz. Knock on wood haven't had any issues. Just a sprinkle with pine and cedar shavings.

Thanks for the tips, it's helpful

I put a small amount of DE in my chickens’ dust bath without mixing it in and it gave one a cough immediately and several got a runny nose. They all survived, but it was something I’ll never risk again.

YOU CAN ALSO USE HALF BAKING SODA, AND HALF CORNBREAD OR HALF CHOCOLATE CAKE MIX. PUT IT IN A BAG FIRST AND SHAKE IT UP TO MAKE SURE ITS MIXED THEN PUT IT IN A CONTAINER THAT YOU PUT HOLES IN SO THE RODENTS CAN ACCESS AND OTHER ANIMALS CAN'T. IT ISN'T DANGEROUS TO OTHER ANIMALS AND THE DEAD RODENTS ALSO AREN'T DANGEROUS TO OTHER ANIMALS . IT WORKS.

Hardware cloth is the absolute best and safest for our girls! Another great tip is to bury the hardware wire, so important!

us and my grandparents fed and feed our chicken raw potato skins with out ever having any issue's. Just thought I would share

Don't have or raise chickens, but a couple of my friends do. I just don't have the space for doing this kind of thing. Thanks for the video information.

Ok im guilty of how this video started off i did absolutely no research cuz i thought it'd be common knowledge and now im finding out that everything i did was wrong so now im here trying to fix my mistakes

Here are 2 more. 1. having too many roosters. In 1 flock you should only have 1 rooster, even 2 roosters in 1 flock is too much and they fight each other every time, and if you have more than that they may gonna try to jump on 1 chicken as a pack of roosters, so when there are 10 roosters that means hell for chickens. So keep the rooster count low. 2. dropping food above the fence to them. If you have small chicken try to give them food not above fence, otherwise you may gonna hit 1 of them and have the chance of it being fatal if you giving them water melons and similar big or bulkier foods. So be careful giving them bigger foods.

So when the heat lamp 250 watt bulbs that you buy gets so hot the solder melts and shorts out and bulb blows out of the the fixure and burns your place down. I have seen it many times. That's why a friend's barn burned down.

I have completely stopped using heat lamps for my chicks. I know use. The Mother heating pad method. Even outdoors. Works great.

Very helpful information😊

My coupe is even bear proof while giving them plenty of fresh air. I free range them during the day. So They get plenty of sunlight when it's available.

Mine have a dust bath I just mixed up.. 100lbs medium sand.. 40lbs topsoil.. 2 large Folger cans of DE and about 2lbs charcoal ash... is that going to be alright for them ???

I had less problems with my dog than the cat. She wanted to hunt them so bad. So I kept her away till they were bigger than her. As far as digging my chickens are the only ones that tend to dig.

Yeah you definitely need to keep an eye on the chickens that are at the bottom of the pecking order I have a Polish rooster that was not getting enough food because all the hens and ducks are greedy so I separated him just so he can get enough to eat

In Florida, despite my efforts, my chickens have run out of water in the summer heat. If you think a chicken is seriously dehydrated, put a small amount of salt or baking soda in the first water you give them. I had one hen have convulsions after I refilled her water bowl in the summer.

Very good video sir!!!

I learned curiosity kills the chickens! 😂 Great video

Great video... however, just a note, most veterinarians won't treat chickens. Surgery on birds is a very tricky business, because their body temperature is very high and hard to regulate under anesthesia.

Great video with great information. Love that you talk fairly quickly. I can’t stand watching the slow talker videos.

Very informative, thank you sir! My young Scout took great pleasure in destroying all four of my chickens. I feel so bad bc this adventure was totally preventable, a mistake I won’t ever make again.

Cannibalism. Chickens in an overcrowded coop will kill and then eat each other in a neglected coop, usually the smallest and most shy in the flock, or the one hen that's different color. My neighbors consistently say it's weasels but we don't have any, or raccoons, but here's no sign of entry. But the chicken that dies has usually been bullied because they take a 5 chicken coop and buy more chicks so there's 15 in there. And they don't clean the floor so they live in a constant cloud of methane. And there's 6 broken down nesting boxes for 15 hens and one roost bar that's only 5 feet long. The bullied hens never get up there and live in the methane cloud all winter. Winter is the worst. The water freezes over because the boy doesn't want to put on his boots and check on them and I find the food dispenser empty at least once every two months. I feed and water them and I'm just the renter neighbor. They've had about 25 hens in the time I lived here and always lose enough down to six, after which she buys more chickens because she thinks they're cute and pretty. Fortunately, they seem to be coming around after all my badgering, cleaning up the coop a little, and allowing them to free range at least twice a week (we have eagles). Thank goodness they're realizing these are living creatures utterly dependent on their captors and not just egg factories. I was afraid I'd have to call animal rescue on them. But anyway ... cannibalism. Chickens will do it without a second thought.

Lost a chicken to a hawk and had a couple of other near misses. Then we strung a thin red ribbon back and forth over the run, in random zig zag patterns. I've seen a hawk flying overhead, sometimes causing the chickens to squawk, but it did not come down. Not sure if this will last through snow and ice or will have to be rehung in the spring; will find out soon!

I've read so many people say elderberry is toxic. The deer have plenty of yummy things to eat around here but prefer to eat my elderberry bushes to the ground, and the wild birds strip an elderberry bush of fruit as soon as they're barely ripe...

I used a heat lamp for 4 days, thats it. Chicks do NOT need a heat lamp. Added heat can and does slow their feathering out.

I give mine spent elderberries after making syrup, they love it. Where did you find information saying they were toxic? Please and thank you ☺️

I just planted a Hall's honeysuckle to have grow up and over the poultry yard fence. Never heard they were poisonous , do I need to remove the vine? Birds need some shade.

My chickens eat tomatoes all of the time. In fact my neighbor gathers leftover tomatoes from my garden for hers every year and sometimes her turkeys come to eat out of my garden.

Thanks for this information but I have a question about the dried, raw beans: does this include dried raw legumes? Asking because I’ve been researching alternative, homemade feeds and legumes are in a majority of the recipes. Thx

Zip tie the heat lamp to the chain for extra security but the heat plate & if needed a coop heater are definitely safer & much less expensive to operate than heat lamps

Elderberry?? Chickens love elderberry. I know people who plant elderberry along their coop. In fact one of the content creators is very well known.

My chickens love tomatoes, they go for the seeds first, then the fruit. I only let them have once a week. ACV in their water is also good for them. ACV -Apple Cider Vinegar. One tablespoon per gallon. I use even less, 1 tsp per quart watering bottle.

Nice information

Dry peas are ok get them cracked tho, I feed a scratch that is Wheat, Peas and Corn. They lay very well on it. Dry beans should be cooked first are an amazing source of protein in the winter and can help hens lay all winter and keep weight on them in cold weather.

I lost two chickens by drowing in my sheep livestock waterer, despite putting in a ladder. Two separate instances. I also lost one that I could not find anywhere. I looked for hours. She had fallen behind the hay bales (very very narrow opening) and couldn't get out and died. I only found what was left of her after I used most of hte hay stack. If I had only thought to move the hay bales until I could see all the way to the bottom!

Good but you should do one for other countries...as in plants etc ❤❤❤

I have 6 dogs. 3 are large breeds. G. Shepherd, Husky, and English lab/chow mix, and one of my small dog is a rat terrier which is a known killer breed. My husky is a straight killer (possums beware 😅). My husky was bringing headless chickens home for a while. We live in the country and don’t know where the nearest chickens are? Anyway we have now had chicken for 2 years and all my dogs protect and are super gentle with my gals and rue. My shepherd especially has taken to being their protector! He now prefers to sleep outside and watch the property.

FENCES. If you have a fence with just enough space to put chicken's head between boards (or metal parts, whatever) they can HANG themselves, please, pay attention to that! I was surprised it wasn't said in the video.

Iv seen alot of peope recommend diatomaceous earth and not really calrify how little should be used. I personaly use general purpose sand. Its super dusty. Put it in a wide low edge bin, a kiddie pool or an already dirt spot in your yard and bring the chickens over 2 or 3 times a day (however much they seem to enjoy) They love it and cluck like nuts when they do it. Hope this helps.

Ive seen elderberry listed as toxic in several videos and on a few online lists, but all the real world accounts say that their girls were fine living with an elderberry shrub in their run for a decade and other similar accounts. I think there is something more to look at with this issue given the disparity between the literature and real life.

I don’t use DE anymore because I put a big scoop on some maggots that were eating the chicken manure and it didn’t do anything. Even after 2days covered in DE. Use a regular dewormer.

I remember seeing an episode of something like 20/20 cant remember like 30 years ago of a kid that developed a brain tumor. His mother sought after a fix. Eventually she heard about apple seeds. Kid ate apple seeds daily and his tumor vanished. Ever since then when I eat an apple, I eat the entire thing minus the stem.

Thank you.

We have trees in our yard and tarps for chickens to hide under and an automatic 60 pound chicken door and an human door with a spining handle so raccoons don't get in we once had a passes twice in the nesting box waiting for the chickens to go to sleep but thankfully we got him out

Thankyou!!

Folks are swiching over from heat lamps to heated brooder plates. Much safer and much easier for the chicks to keep themselves as warm as they wan to be.

Hey at around 5:16 you say the vitamin poison has no antidote but the video says it does? Still should be used cautiously but yea

I cook for my girls on a bi weekly basis one week their diet is supplemented with cooked rice and veggies and opposite weeks is fruits and salad greens! They love watermelon rinds! I leave a lot of the red fruit on the rinds 😋🐓diatometious earth food grade is used every six months on their body’s as well as dusting the coops. I don’t use poison on mouse control, my cats don’t harm my chickens and catch mice with ease!

Also make sure dust is present so they can bathe and groom themselves without getting fleas and other bugs on their feathers.

Water is definitely a challenge in summer. They go through it so fast

I put a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar per gallon of water, it really does help the chickens