A Real-Life Example of Chicken Math

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FunClucks said:
New chicken owner here in North Alabama, with a real-life example of "chicken math".

We started out with 6 chickens from Rural King (1 starlight green egger, 1 prairie bluebell, 3 ISA browns, and 1 golden comet) because I wanted eggs and the minimum purchase was six chicks. Six became eight when the buff orpingtons finally came in after I'd already picked out the ISA browns instead. Eight became nine when I "rescued" a strange looking 3 wk old chick from TSC while attempting to purchase more bedding - the bedding was damp so I came home with a chick instead. (No one was buying him because he had serious pasty butt and was older that the other chicks - turned out he was fine and was pooping around the poop stuck to his butt.) Nine became 12 when I decided I loved our prairie bluebell so much I wanted a few more, and just happened to walk past the chick section at Rural King while checking if the Bluebells were there, and came home with 2 starlight green eggers and one olive egger. 12 became 16 when I went to pick up the prairie bluebells that finally came in at Rural King and they had four different colors. 16 became 19 when the husband was disappointed I only came home with one black PBB chick, so I went back for a second, but the second black chick needed a gray friend, and then we had to have even numbers between the green/olive and blue egg layers, so I added another green egger. Since I had to build a coop and run anyway, and I had planned for extra space, might as well use it right?

I thought we were raising livestock, and then I realized I had to be my own vet (pretty much), and so then started handling them multiple times a day because if I'm going to be their vet, they'd better not fight me. And of course my kids and husband share the care duties and want to handle them too, and then their personalities start coming out, and I realized that if even one of them gets eaten by a predator our entire family will be devastated. I started out thinking we would cull and eat them when they were done laying, or if they were roosters, but now I don't know if that will ever happen. My free range livestock chickens have turned into Ft Knox covered run and coop pet chickens.

Heaven help us if/when we have to re-home our rooster, or even worse, cull someone. And heaven help us if we ever lose even one to a predator. Many life lessons to be learned here I suppose, but hopefully not for a while yet. I was looking for about 4 laying hens because I wanted eggs and thought some responsibility and work with animals would be good for the children and ended up with 19 new pets. Have any of you had a similar experience?
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Ba ha ha oh I so resemble this one!?!?!
I wanted 6 in original flock , 2 years ago. Well hatchery didn't have my barred rock so I need to replace that one.
There's 1
Then 1 died last year so .
There's 2
Well who wants the same kind you already have? So 1 w/ minimum turns into 4.
Need another breed so 1 turns into another 4 . Okay I'm DONE!!! Period end.
Okay hubby gets on board and decides to add onto coop and one mother hen goes broody so if I get a few chicks that will break her RIGHT??
Well I walk in hubby in tow and he sees the cute Easter eggers oh he's HOOKED! :eek::thumbsup. So another 4!!!!!

Ha ha So for me 2 turned into 11 so chicken math is real.
I've BANNED myself from TSC till next October yes I should be safe by then. :wee:ya:gigIts like we were abducted by aliens ??
 
Welcome! I'm new here, too. I fully intended to get as many chickens as I believe we could comfortably house (15) but DH was the one who was a little slower to come around. TS had five australorps so I brought them home (he had approved about 8). But why not have more like ten because we can still get as few as five birds shipped? So 5+5 was really 5+6... WHICH IS A HORRIBLY AWKWARD NUMBER OF CHICKENS TO HAVE!!! Clearly something will have to be done... I feel like I'm with my people here. :)
 
I've been trying to find the chicken math chart I saw . It basically goes like this
Start with number in flock
Subtract cocks ( cause they're not hens
Subtract layers ( cause they pay their way)
Subtract chicks ( cause they're not big enough)
Subtract any hens your selling ( cause their on way out)
Subtract any birds that are named ( cause their pets)
There's you ACTUAL total!
 
Happy hen lover said:
Ba ha ha oh I so resemble this one!?!?!
I wanted 6 in original flock , 2 years ago. Well hatchery didn't have my barred rock so I need to replace that one.
There's 1
Then 1 died last year so .
There's 2
Well who wants the same kind you already have? So 1 w/ minimum turns into 4.
Need another breed so 1 turns into another 4 . Okay I'm DONE!!! Period end.
Okay hubby gets on board and decides to add onto coop and one mother hen goes broody so if I get a few chicks that will break her RIGHT??
Well I walk in hubby in tow and he sees the cute Easter eggers oh he's HOOKED! :eek::thumbsup. So another 4!!!!!

Ha ha So for me 2 turned into 11 so chicken math is real.
I've BANNED myself from TSC till next October yes I should be safe by then. :wee:ya:gigIts like we were abducted by aliens ??
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I don't know, but something happened to my reasoning faculties. Alien abduction may explain it. I built a 20 chicken coop thinking my original 9 chickens would have plenty of space and maybe we'd get a few more in a few years then we went from 9 to ~15 to 19 in less than a month. And how do I manage to pick out so many roosters in the sexed pullets bin??? 90% probability of a female is IMO a joke. Should be more like 60-70% based on my (admittedly small) experience.

I too had to stop going inside TSC and Rural King. Curbside pickup only!!!
 
FunClucks said:
I don't know, but something happened to my reasoning faculties. Alien abduction may explain it. I built a 20 chicken coop thinking my original 9 chickens would have plenty of space and maybe we'd get a few more in a few years then we went from 9 to ~15 to 19 in less than a month. And how do I manage to pick out so many roosters in the sexed pullets bin??? 90% probability of a female is IMO a joke. Should be more like 60-70% based on my (admittedly small) experience.

I too had to stop going inside TSC and Rural King. Curbside pickup only!!!
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Mine too . I can't explain the middle group I got the 4 Im not sure why I got
So how many roosters did you end up with out of 19?
 
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Happy hen lover said:
Mine too . I can't explain the middle group I got the 4 Im not sure why I got
So how many roosters did you end up with out of 19?
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Well, right now, there's two I'm pretty sure of, and 3 more probable (hoping I'm wrong). And of course one of them would be my gorgeous partridge/flower frizzle easter egger. Two of my prairie bluebells and one starlight green egger, so basically 5 of my 13 colored eggers. I had my egg basket color mix all planned out, and this really messes things up. Not to mention the drama and trauma of rehoming them. The kids of course are in love, and I'm liking the little guys so far also.
 
FunClucks said:
Well, right now, there's two I'm pretty sure of, and 3 more probable (hoping I'm wrong). And of course one of them would be my gorgeous partridge/flower frizzle easter egger. Two of my prairie bluebells and one starlight green egger, so basically 5 of my 13 colored eggers. I had my egg basket color mix all planned out, and this really messes things up. Not to mention the drama and trauma of rehoming them. The kids of course are in love, and I'm liking the little guys so far also.
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Shoot that's what I'm afraid of too. I'm not loving anyone yet. I loved that cute Easter egger of yours too. I'm hoping my leghorns turn out to be my roos!
 
Happy hen lover said:
I've been trying to find the chicken math chart I saw . It basically goes like this
Start with number in flock
Subtract cocks ( cause they're not hens
Subtract layers ( cause they pay their way)
Subtract chicks ( cause they're not big enough)
Subtract any hens your selling ( cause their on way out)
Subtract any birds that are named ( cause their pets)
There's you ACTUAL total!
Click to expand...
Sooo... What you're saying is, I actually have *zero* chickens, therefore I Have to order 15 more! :celebrate
 

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