CHICKEN MATH STRIKES AGAIN

[MsSage]

This is my first year...LOL I studied and found the perfect bird for me GLW I love the coloring and reading they are a dual purpose and friendly and cold hardy.
Planning on moving to Idaho..sooo well contacted Ideal and now I am waiting on my 5 pulletts...they "should" be here around the first of may eeeekkkkkkkkk
Welll I cant wait and the local farm and ranch store had RIR so off I went and I was going to get 2 then S/O said no better get 4 cuz half will die awwwww ok well I get there
and after getting laughed at by the mgr and admitting I have never even touched a chick let alone a chicken or caught one LOL I ended up with 5. hmmmmm ok a week and half
later all are still alive and I am still waiting on my "dream birds" Good thing is when my GLW get here the RIR will be outside and the water trough will be empty.
Oh and waiting on a friend to get back from a weekend trip to start building coop LOLOLOLOLOLOL She got me hooked on chickens so I asked/ told her she had to help me build a coop.

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

This is my first year...LOL I studied and found the perfect bird for me GLW I love the coloring and reading they are a dual purpose and friendly and cold hardy.
Planning on moving to Idaho..sooo well contacted Ideal and now I am waiting on my 5 pulletts...they "should" be here around the first of may eeeekkkkkkkkk
Welll I cant wait and the local farm and ranch store had RIR so off I went and I was going to get 2 then S/O said no better get 4 cuz half will die awwwww ok well I get there
and after getting laughed at by the mgr and admitting I have never even touched a chick let alone a chicken or caught one LOL I ended up with 5. hmmmmm ok a week and half
later all are still alive and I am still waiting on my "dream birds" Good thing is when my GLW get here the RIR will be outside and the water trough will be empty.
Oh and waiting on a friend to get back from a weekend trip to start building coop LOLOLOLOLOLOL She got me hooked on chickens so I asked/ told her she had to help me build a coop.

half your chickens wont die....

you sound like my sis, she loves wyandottes!

 

[dixiegal62]

I swore no babies this spring. DH has colen cancer and I already have my hands full. It started when my son bought 4 ducklings at TSC and asked me to raise them for the grandkids.I figured since I was going to be in the garage tending to them I might as well do a 'few' chicks too. So I bought 12 buff orp at TSC... then I thought whats a few more might as well raise them together and I went today and got 4 lav orps, 4 black orps, and 6 coroantion sussex, so 'none' turned into 30

How could I have I forgotten my new EE Roo?.....31
And theres a chance I might be getting a fizzle hen and roo....so 0+4 = 31 or 33

 

[MsSage]

I swore no babies this spring. DH has colen cancer and I already have my hands full. It started when my son bought 4 ducklings at TSC and asked me to raise them for the grandkids.I figured since I was going to be in the garage tending to them I might as well do a 'few' chicks too. So I bought 12 buff orp at TSC... then I thought whats a few more might as well raise them together and I went today and got 4 lav orps, 4 black orps, and 6 coroantion sussex, so 'none' turned into 30

How could I have I forgotten my new EE Roo?.....31
And theres a chance I might be getting a fizzle hen and roo....so 0+4 = 31 or 33

Sending prayers. I have found through family and friends having pets around is good for the soul while dealing with cancer. They help both the person and the caretaker.

I am SOOOOO glad I am NOT alone in this getting a couple to hmmmm how did I end up with THAT many LOLOLOLOLOL

 

[SC Yankee]

Hmmm, I got 6 straight run BO's and 6 RIR pullets a couple weeks ago. The RIR were about a week older then the BO's at the time of purchase. Then last nite a co worker brought me 3 Red Star pullets. So, 12 came out to 15. Can chicken math ever be unlearned?

Since the nearly 3 week old RIR's are so comparatively large to the new Redstars, I had to put in a second brooder, second heatlamp fixture and bulb, second waterer, second feeder...... Why did I spend $40 for three chicks??? dang chicken math. Oh, there's the food too.

I put one of the smaller BO chicks in with the Redstars and now, instead of being the runt in the brooder, it's the giant in the brooder. The little ones seem to appreciate having a big sis around to calm them down and lead them. Well, I truly don't know what or how they think, so this is merely an interpretation of my observation.

This morning, I added two more of the BO's to the new brooder. They seem to get along fine and now the 6 RIR's and 3 BO's have more room in their brooder.

Question, it seems the RIR's are getting some kind of bumpy ridges starting just above their nose and running up their skulls, what the heck is that called? They're getting feathers too. Don't look as cute and adorable at this stage either. Kinda like a bad hair day.

 

[BirdyMe]

My limit for this year was 15 birds- no more. Over the course of the past week, I've come home with 19 chicks and 3 ducklings. Chicken Math strikes again! lol

 

[gryeyes]

Question, it seems the RIR's are getting some kind of bumpy ridges starting just above their nose and running up their skulls, what the heck is that called? They're getting feathers too. Don't look as cute and adorable at this stage either. Kinda like a bad hair day.

Those bumpy ridges starting at the top of the beak and running up the skull is a "comb." Both roosters AND hens get combs; when I had my first 8 chicks and they started to grow combs, I thought I had all roosters!! I didn't know hens grew combs, too.

There are several types of combs, depending upon the breed.

There is definitely an "ugly" stage for chick, very awkward and partially feathered, partially still fluffed. Definitely a bad feather day or few! Gangly, like young teens. It will last a couple of weeks, then it won't look so bad. And then suddenly they are smaller versions of adult chickens, all feathered out.

At 8 weeks, they pretty much look like chickens, just smaller. Then you notice they are larger. And then larger. At about 12 weeks they are just a bit smaller than adult chickens.

I am a living example of Chicken Math gone viral. I started with 8 in October 2009 and had 16 by Summer 2010. Then it jumped to 25 or so.. and now I have over 50 chickens and I just set 30 some eggs in 3 incubators.

Plus I also have 9 ducks and a pair of Toulouse geese!

 

[chickenmanII]

Well I am glad to hear it's not just me. We went today to get our 3 silkies and came home with 5. Then had to hurry home and work on the their coop. So now we are up to 47 chickens all different ages and 2 turkeys.

 

[Garrisonkidsduo2]

This kind of happened to me. I bought 7 chicks last summer, i ended up with 3 roosters so I kept 1 rooster and the hens. I then went back and bought 5 pullets, and then I had to go pick up 5 more pullets that were given to me. I have now hatched out 15 chicks and signed my kids up for 4-H and the kids are getting 25 chicks each so I have. 50 chicks coming home on the 5th of April, 10 egg laying hens that we kept in all, 1 rooster, and 15 chicks almost feathered out. so the is 75 chickens in total. 6 chickens go to the fair for 4-h

 

[Garrisonkidsduo2]

I don't want to talk about ducks because i got some eggs from my neighbor to hatch out and just wanted a drake and 3 hens. Well I have a drake she gave me 3 of her egg laying hens, plus I still hatched out 6 more ducklings and I still have 8 eggs in the incubator and all are half way hatched out so.