Great story! I have a "special needs" buff orphington who survived a dog attack. She moves slowly and doesn't lay anymore, but she still enjoys walking around and eating bugs, observing life and hanging out with the flock. The rooster leave her alone too.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...
oh well, chicken math. Still only have 7 1/2 chickens, not 32 like one may have thought...
Actually since the space that a large fowl hen needs can accommodate 3-4 bantams so that means that every 3 or 4 bantams is one large fowl hen. I’m getting 4 Sebright Bantam pullets in March so that’s 1 chickenI think as it stands the bantys count as zero because they're small and kind of ornamental. Also if you get a hen as a companion for another hen, the companion doesn't count cause it's serving another purpose allegedly
and then I’m getting an Ameraucana and Araucana pullet in April so that’s 3 chickens and then I plan to get a Salmon Faverolles chick, Golden Campine chick, Dominique chick, & a Light Brahma chick so that would bring me to 7 chickens and then I will be rescueing a Cornish cross pullet from slaughter in September so that’s only 8 chickens. And my mom said I could only have 5 
