Explaining Chicken Math - Page 7

Funny.

Funny when I got started, I wasn't sure I could handle chickens at all, let alone day old chicks.

I kept visiting the local feed store to see what they had.

One day I arrived when they were looking to sell 11 four-week old chicks at half price.

HALF PRICE! So, I bought them all.

The only two bantams, turned out to be a pullet and a cockerel.

I found a guy on Craigslist willing to take the pair in trade for a few quail.

-2 chickens but + 20 quail.

+5 Ameracaunas - wanted colored eggs and neighbor called and her friend was looking to re-home them.

Started doing research and fell in love with a few breeds

+ 2 Buff Brahmas

+ 2 Silver Laced Wyandottes

+ 1 Gold Laced Cochin

Read that you could incubate quail eggs under bantam hens, and that Bantam Nankins are a good breed for this.

+ 6 Nankins  Too small an order...

+ 6 Danish Brown Leghorns  Still too small...

+ 4 Ameracaunas

Order arrives with

+ 7 Barred Rock Roos added for warmth

Panic ensues

- 4 Barred Rock Roos rehomed

- 2 Ameracauna hens also rehomed as enticement for woman taking the roos

Went to get feed, they had day old chicks

+5 Light Brahmas

3 hens went broody at the same time + eggs to let them set

+7 Sex Links

+ 5 Australorps

June 0 - today 55

This seems the perfect place to ask - Does anyone want to adopt some chickens?
 

Oh my, these stories are just too funny.  

I SWORE I wouldn't fall victim to chicken math....famous last declaration...

We wanted 7 chickens...we really did start out with 7.  So cute they were, so cute in fact that when I went the next week to get dog food at the farm store I somehow came home with 3 more!  Well now, an even 10 is a good start!  

But around the 4-5 week mark we discovered that two of our sexed EE's turned out to be roos...which means I only have 8 pullets now...one of which is a d'uccle bantam.  SO....I picked up 2 more d'uccles(can't have her lonely, unfortunately they ended up roos) a RIR and another BA.  

Then I wanted some silkies and got 5...plus a polish because it was so stinkin' cute!

Soooo now our 7 chickens have turned into 20!  And this weekend I am going to the Michigan Chickenstock where I already have a Cuckoo Maran, 3 "turken/uggo/silkie" mixes on order!  STOP ME!!!!!  Lol

Ok, time for my "chicken math"

I wanted chickens, DW did not.  I started building my first coop to house 16 birds.  Well a friend needed a coop, so he bought one from the list with 5 birds (4hens+1 Roo).  His birds did not get along with the new birds...so I go em.  I ordered my 12 hens and started getting the brooder ready for arrival.  I then ordered my 15 hens for a month down the road.  DW loved the chickens that were given to us.....wanted some "Rare" birds......quick purchase from McMurrary...25 "rarest of the Rare"  Bam!  Then DW wanted to hatch some....11 more!  So my 27 hens I wanted has turned into.....11+ 12+ 15+ 5+25.  68  

Now with nature, give-a-ways and animal swap.....I am down to 15+8+7+8+14.....52!!   So now it is time to start getting the coops combined, since my next adventure is Dorkins!!!!!

Joe

You do chicken math like I do!  Must be that dang cuteness of those baby chicks that throws our math skills down the drain!

I went into the local Farm and Fleet to look at new chicks:  thought I'd buy 6, ended up taking 12 home; went back the next week and 

they were on sale for $1.19---brought two more home.  Went back to ask if they were getting any Ameraucana's in ---of course they were!

Put in an order for 4----took home 6!   So 6 =20?   Hmmmm?  

They don't teach this kind of math in the public schools in Iowa!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by philbfarm 

Okay, you people are scaring me!  I am a newbie.  Started out this April wanting four.  Already up to 7, and can't help myself from looking at other breeds and rescues.  You know where this is going........

My husband was innocent and not even close to addicted when he met me and my 2 Silkie hens. Now he's worse than I am! We can't go to a feed store with baby chicks and walk out with NOTHING! The only time I was able to talk him down was when we were moving. The week we were moving. Two weeks before, he bought 6 layers and 3 Guinea. Last time we went to the feed store for layer pellets, he came home with 3 pea fowl chicks.

Isn't it weird how chickens can multiply without even laying eggs?  Hatcheries and stores (ie. TSC) make you buy at least 6 for some odd reason.  They told me it was state law (still can't find the law they were talking about).  Initially I bought 6 chicks, straight run, breed unknown (the girl helping me was afraid of the chicks and store couldn't find paperwork on the order).  Only wanting a couple of chicks I brought my little ones home to live in the bathroom until it was warm enough for them to go outside.  I did loose one though, reason unknown.  Then I found Bantams!  The most gentle and beautiful birds in the world.  The TSC chicks went to a friend who lived in the country.   I got 3 hens, 1 rooster, 2 chicks given to me for free.  They went from being off the ground cage chickens to chickens who had a dog kennel with grass and weeds in it.  My rooster went crazy...nearly killed his color mate so I found him a new home as a 4-H chicken project for a 9 year old.  Then one of my hens went broody and I couldn't get her out of it.  Tried all of the remedies which I could find to no avail.  Then saw an ad on a popular site that someone had fertilized Bantam eggs for sale.  I called and went to see her chickens.  She is breeding for show, (me for fun and a few eggs).  Bought 6 eggs (she gave me 10) and now I am waiting to see if the eggs are going to hatch.  One week to go.  The birthing date should be June 27, 2012.  If only half of the chicks make it I will be happy.  I know that my broody hen is very happy.  She gets off the nest 3 times a day to eat, drink and do her business.  It is so cool to go out there and check on her several times a day.  She started "singing" when she got "real" eggs.  I guess that the golf balls and plastic Easter eggs just weren't the same.  She knows now that she has the real things.

So, I went from 6 chicks - 1 chick = 5 chicks;  5 chicks - 5 chicks = 0 chicks;  3 hens + 1 rooster + 2 chicks = 6 chickens;  6 chickens - 1 rooster = 5 chickens;  5 chickens + 10 eggs = ? time will tell.

My worst temptation is when one of my girls gets broody. I want them to have something to hatch. I mean, can you imagine sitting on a clutch of eggs, or a pencil, or a small rock, or a piece of wood (Silkies are not choosey) for 3 weeks and having nothing to show for it? 23.5 hours a day/7 days a week.

If I have a rooster, I gather eggs that I know are purebred. If I don't have a rooster, I either buy fertile eggs from a local breeder ($3/dozen!) or.....*drum roll*

I go to the feed store.

I brought home turkey chicks for my Silkie bantams once. They raised those turkeys up so well. I could write a book about the drama. Turkeys could not figure out which white Silkie was their mom and if they went to the wrong one, BAM! Then Mom comes over and BAM on the other Mom for the BAM on her chick...and the cycle continued...

I'll do turkeys for Thanksgiving this year and yes, my Silkies will raise them for me. Best thing for turkeys because the chickens show them how to go outside and how to go inside. Without Mom, those turkeys would die of thirst because the water bucket is on the outside of the coop, in the run. Right there, through that open door..... just through the door.
 

HA HA, that pretty much sums up most of us  

I started out asking hubs if we could get a "few" chickens two years ago.  Our local Tractor Supply didn't have the ones I wanted, so I went online & ordered them, unaware of the 25 minimum order.  Ended up with 26 White Leghorn.  A couple died and then I realized that was way more chickens than I could handle (or wanted), so we sold half of them to a neighbor down the street.  Not too long after that, we had a massacre in the coop & lost all but three hens (two were 4-H show chickens, so I was so thankful they survived).  We've added numerous chickens for 4-H along the way...some we've lost to illness/predators, others weren't a good fit & we parted ways.  I find the 4-H chickens/ducks are much easier to explain to hubby, lol.

Right now we have the three White Leghorn hens, one large White Leghorn rooster (4-H), three mallard ducks, one Brown Leghorn pullet, two Ancona pullets, one splash Silkie pullet (4-H), and one Rhode Island Red hen (a rescue)...but we are adding 12 Silver Leghorns, four Silver Laved Wyandottes, six Lakenvelders, and three Delawares in a couple of weeks.  And yet I keep scouring Craigslist and swaps (haven't told hubby my step daughter & I are hitting up a swap this Sat) as if I need more birds.