What is chicken math

[KristyHall]

I hear the reference to it a lot.

So what is it?

Is it just the constant addition of chickens to the flock?

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Nope, it's just a way we try and fool ourselves into justifying our flock's numbers. It's a really nice fun way to totally lie to yourself.

For example I'll use my flock.

I have 97 grown chickens right now plus about 35 chicks and over a hundred eggs in the incubator. So technically I have 97 + 35 or 132 chickens, and if you count the eggs due to hatch, that number climbs and will be over 200.

In chicken math the eggs don't count of course, because they are eggs, not chickens, therefore from over 200 just brought it down to 132. The chicks don't count because they are just chicks, so that brings it down to 97. Of these 97, 15 are rooster, everybody knows roosters don't count so now I'm down to 82 chickens. Ten of these are bantams which should only count as a half a chicken each because they are small, so now I'm down to 77 chickens. I have 18 that I'm going to trade off soon, so they shouldn't count should they? So now I've only got 59. Now there are 30 laying hens for sale, I'm sure they won't be here much longer so down to only 29 Chickens.

I'm not very good at chicken math, so an expert could probably trim a few more off those numbers somehow.

The thing is, those 29 chickens have already laid over 1200 eggs this month and ate over 900 pounds of feed.

 

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

AND if you count them in dozens (round down!) everyone knows the chicken keeper's dozen is actually 16, not 12. If you order hatching eggs, a 'half dozen' will bring you eight eggs every time, so it must be true!
I have less than a dozen chickens. Especially if roo's dont count. Why then I only have just over half a dozen.

 

[zengrrl]

I suck horribly at math but chicken math I feel redeemed.

My husband thought 3 chicks would be more than enough for us. I wanted 10 so half of 10 is 5 plus his 3 is 8. I now have 8 chicks. That's chicken math.
However I'm thinking if I slipped in maybe 2 he wouldn't notice so technically thats still 8!

 

[Chick N Haus]

Chicken math is very dangerous for us (who have been out of the business for quite a few years) whose memory is evidently not very good. We needed just enough chickens to give two retired people some eggs. Of course we realize that you don't always get hens. In the interest of economy (with our new limited income), we thought we should order straight run as it is cheaper and we could make good use of a little extra meat. So, we looked at the different descriptions of chickens and naturally each breed was better in certain climates, better at laying or better for meat. Naturally you have to get a variety so that you can see which works better for you. Part of having chickens is entertainment also at our age, so they can't all look alike. Needless to say "just enough chickens to give two retired people some egss" quickly turned into 53 chickens.
Rationale:
Some will die
Half will be roosters
Some won't lay well in cold weather
The bear did get a few

So hens enough for a few eggs turns into 20, but now you have to also take into account that my DH is old and gets a different number each time he tries to count. That's chicken math isn't it? We're already trying to decide what to order next year because hens don't lay as well in the second year, right? And we found some other breeds that might be good. We NEED more chickens, right? Heaven forbid we should eat store bought eggs again. To say nothing of all the money we're saving (thank goodness we didn't actually keep track). That IS chicken math, isn't it?

 

[Pinky]

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[NewHopePoultry]

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[Happy Chooks]

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Yup!

 

[lolmom]

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[un-named]

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.....or it's when I went into the tractor/farm store to JUST BUY ONE rake for gravel, heard the chicks and gave in and decided I HAD to have just three chicks and came out with:
2 americaunas, 1 leghorn, 1 production red, and 2 wyandottes