Understanding Chicken Math

[Lute]

I think I understand now.

While out and about in Albuquerque today my boyfriend and I stopped in at the Tractor Supply store in Bosque. I'd gone there expecting to check out the supplies there, to look into prices on Layena with Omega 3 and check out the Incubators. I came home with 6 new "red pullets".



The duckling is my preexisting and last duckling from the "Quality Baits" feed store in Albuquerque (on Isleta) the other 3 died. The mirror is so she doesn't get lonely. These two seem to get along and the chick was the smallest of the group.

So with my also preexisting six I'm up to 12 chicks and a duckling.

My sister thinks I've lost my marbles.

 

[Imp]

Lute,

Chicks and ducklings do not count in chicken math. So at this point you do not have any chickens.

You'd better head back to the feedstore.

Imp

 

[jujub41482]

I went to the feed store today and couldn't resist getting a Silver Laced Wynadotte as a companion for my other lonely chick. The store just got them in and didn't have a barcode to scan for them so they rang the chick up as a retaining wall block, which was the same price. So my receipt says I bought a block, not a chick... so it doesn't count.

 

[LottieDa]

Here's an example of how chicken math works....

We have 8 laying hens and this spring I thought I'd like to add 4 chicks to make an even dozen. My husband approved. He came home and checked out the new chicks and said, "uh... honey? did you forget how to count to 4?" I said, "no, I got 4" he said, "I count 6!" and I said, "well yeah! 2 of the breeds are straight run so I HAD to get an extra of each of those to improve my odds of getting pullets... DUH!" He said, "chicken math, right?!"

 

[donrae]

We decided the free chicks they're giving away with a bag of feed purchase don't count, either. So now I've got a dozen barred rock chicks that "aren't there". Course, none of the chicks really count, neither do the bantams (even though they started laying like gangbusters two weeks ago

). The roo is iffy, like half a chicken. And the pullets from last year aren't really that old (okay they're a year and laying great) so they don't really count. So where do all these eggs come from if I have no chickens?

 

[KingBardRock]

Ok... Chicken math..

So I started last year with 25 chicks, my first batch ever, 5 of them did not make it out of the brooder. They were really smalla nd got laid on and squished by the others, so that left me with 20. These 20 made it out of the 4ft by 4ft brooder and into the chicken coops that I had built for them. We left them in the coop about a month before free ranging them in the 3 acres of grass, through out the summer we lost one here and there and by the time I ordered by second batch we had 12(the original 12 we call them since we still have them now).

I sat down to figure out how many I needed to order to get me back to the original number of 25... I ordered 10 Bard rock pullets, 1 bard rock roo, 10 white lace wyns and 5 White Frizzle Cochins, plus 1 mystery chick. So that gives me 26 new babies coming in which equals out to 25 total chickens right? (ok maybe it gives me 38 but who is counting?) Now at this point my girlfriend is thinking that I am insane. 38 chickens wont fit in the coops she says and I need to either sell some chickens or curb the order... I did neither..

On arrival all 5 cochin were dead, , plus a few of the bard rocks and Wyns did not make it past the 48 hour mark. (We got them delivered in March and transit weather was VERY cold. So now out of my new ones we have 16 babies. The girlfriend said that is perfect!! We will surely lose a few to the preditors and that will give us the 25 that I wanted to begin with.. Right?... WRONG..

I took said girlfriend to a local chicken farm/hatchery and lo and behold she fell in love with 7 more chicks (Planned? Maybe )

So now we are back up to 23 chicks and 12 hens. Which if they live we will have 35 total chickens (10 more than was approved by the other half).

So now here we are in July and I find out that there is a Hatchery that will send chicks 3 at a time!! we just lost our Bard rock roo to the pigs, (One accidently stepped on him ) and one of the other "hens" started crowing so that means I need to buy 10 more to replace them right?

34 chickens are left right now and I am staging to order at least 10 more and she says that she does not understand chicken math.. I HAVE to order these to keep us at 25 hens right?

 

[Blooie]

I went into the feed store
Just to buy a bag of starter,
I knew there'd be new chicks inside
So today it would be harder.

I walked right past the brooder boxes
Looked neither left nor right,
I heard the little chickies peep
And vowed I'd avoid the sight.

After paying for my order,
And heading for the door,
I opted just to take a peek,
A quick look - nothing more.

So here I sit in my orange suit,
Waiting my case on the docket-
How the heck do you suppose
Those chicks got in my pocket?

Disclaimer: I have posted this twice now, once in a poetry thread and once on The Front Porch, just in case you think you've seen it before.

 

[Mammahen71]

Don't know if I dare reply.. BUT started out about 3 months ago with the idea that a "few" chickens might be a great idea.. healthier eggs, free eggs (Yeah right!) so we decided to go to a friends house who has HUNDREDS of birds, all different breeds. We pick up a Orpington, Two Leg Horns and a Barred Rock.. and two Pekin ducks.. so we're a little short of the agreed to 10 birds we wanted.. About a month after we got those a friend announced he found a job out of state and wanted to know if we'd adopt his chickens.. so we adopt his 2 Araucana, 2 Silkies, and 2 mystery breed chickens... Now we're up to 12.. and I think, HEY, I'd like to incubate and hatch, my 7 year old will love that! So we pick up 22 eggs 18 chicken and 4 Pekin from the same friend.. Pekin were infertile, so they go away, so I HAVE to buy a dozen Khaki Campbell eggs to replace them (only wanted to buy four, but have to get their required minimum). Didn't have much luck in the hatch, so I have nine 2 week old chicks, and two week old ducklings.. SOOOOO, I HAVE to get more chicks to replace the eggs that didn't hatch.. Now I have 16 Araucana chicks coming on the 12th of this month.. (14 hens and 2 Roosters). All told that SHOULD give me... carry the one.. round.. 10.. that will give me a total of the 10 birds my wife told me I could have!!

I'm not GREAT at math, but by my counting, that comes to 33 hens, 2 roo's and 4 ducks....

So the 2 roo's cancel out 2 hens, and the 4 ducks cancel out 4 hens... therefor I figure you have 27 chickens. UNLESS you have kids, that consider them PETS, and then they are not chickens, they are "cats."

So the great news is: You aren't a crazy chicken person, you are a crazy CAT person, who has 10 chickens and 17 cats!

 

[bearschicks]

1 2 3

 

[spiritbrook]

My chicken math:


Given one bantam hen from a friend. Just wanted a chicken presence to go with my 2 ducks...

2 ducks + 1 hen = 3 fowl

The little hen started brooding so I stuck a couple duck eggs under her. Perhaps I should have done one duck egg, but she seemed to take care of them fine. Whether it was the size of the eggs or if they were not fertile, they didn't hatch. (3 + 0 = 3)

I've always wanted a goose. The feed store had goslings in. They had American Buff. My second choice after Sebastopol - which I still wish to get some day. I bought a little goose with an orange crayon mark on her head (nobody could tell me what it meant, but I was betting it was from being sexed - I was right)




2 ducks + 1 hen + 1 gosling = 4 fowl

I wanted more ducks, so I collected a dozen duck eggs to take to my friend for the incubator. Meanwhile the hen was still being broody so I asked my friend for some bantam eggs. We collected three Serama eggs that were just randomly sitting on the ground. Two from one pen, a third from another. (4 fowl + 15 eggs = ?)

One day I went out to hear my hen make a different type of "broody" sound than her usual "growl" one:



2 ducks + 1 hen + 1 gosling + 2 Serama chicks = 6 fowl

A few days later my friend called to tell me that 3 eggs had hatched, come and get my ducklings:



2 ducks + 1 hen + 1 gosling + 2 chicks + 3 ducklings = 9 fowl

The next week my friend stops by my house and hands me the ugliest Toulouse gosling I have seen. The poor dear had been kicked from its nest while it was hatching and down into the barn floor and was trompled by the goats. My friend had found it and thought it was dead but when it stirred she put it in the brooder with her Serama chicks. The next day it was still living so she brought it to me. Because of his rough start he is a "special needs" goose, but I think he is beautiful.



2 ducks + 1 hen + 2 goslings + 2 chicks + 3 ducklings = 10 fowl

From here on the math gets more complicated...

The Serama grew up to be one frizzled rooster and one smooth hen, both black and white mottled. So this fall, the bantam hen goes broody. I think to myself, aw, how cute and added a half-dozen Serama eggs. She was now sitting on 13 eggs. A few days later I find my Serama hen sitting as well - 7 eggs for her. Too cute, never mind it is September in Oregon where rain is a way of life all winter.

5 ducks + 3 chickens + 2 geese + 20 eggs = ?

Hatching day arrived, I kinda got mixed up about whose eggs hatched but I ended up with 6 half-Serama, 6 Serama, 1 death (failure to thrive) and 3 which were term but never hatched. From 20 eggs, not bad. They all hatched the same day. All of the chicks except 2 were black and white mottled, the 2 others were black. I ended up with 1 mixed frizzle rooster. 5 mixed hens: 2 frizzle, 3 smooth. 2 frizzle Serama roosters. 1 frizzled Serama hen. 1 smooth Serama hen. 2 silkie Serama hens (huh?)




5 ducks + 3 chickens + 2 geese + 12 chicks = 21 fowl

The chicks have grown like crazy and I now get about 6 small chicken eggs per day. I carefully explained to the lot of them that there would be NO BROODING permitted. I do, however, plan to special order 3 more duck hens to offset the 3 drake / 2 hen ratio. BUT THEN I AM DONE...

Famous last words I'm sure...