Chicken math….. what did you start with? What do you have now?

[Sloane Chickens]

One (or two) of everything that the hatchery had available at the time, essentially

Ancona, Ameraucana, Brahma, Austra White, Wyandotte, Rhode Island Red, Barred Plymouth Rock, Crested Cream Legbar, Orpington, Marans

And now some of their offspring, who are so... full of personality... (dramatic)
One of them is half viper. (Admittedly I've never met a viper, but she's a fast striker)
She's a hoot to have around.
We're going to be best buds...
You think she'd enjoy matching sweaters?

I reckon matching sweaters all the way!!!!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

think we need a Chicken Math Anonymous page

That's what BYC is, innit?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I reckon matching sweaters all the way!!!!

I like that! BYC t-shirts, hoodies, jackets .... what else? And why not? I'd buy!

 

[AshVau22]

Started with 15 two years ago. I just did the math I have 57 chicken (I have ducks and turkeys too 65 if you count them) I originally got chicken for egg color. I wanted that beautiful basket of eggs. Now I'm more into breeds and characteristics.
My Roos:
Barnevelder
Blue Ameraucana
Black Ameraucana
Ermine Ameraucana
Salmon Faverolle

My Girls:
Blue Ameraucana
White Leghorn
Barnevelder
French Black Cooper Maran
Cinnamon Queen
Sapphire Gem
Easter Egger
Olive Eggers
White Brahma
Ermine Ameraucana
Barred Rock
Blue laced red wyandotte
Golden Buff
Salmon Faverolle
Buff Cochin
BYM
Serama
I don't think I'm forgetting anyone.

 

[SourRoses]

I started with 3 Silkies hatched from shipped eggs, having never before touched a chicken or knowing anything at all. But I saw the picture of chickens that didn't look like chickens... ("Wait, I can get seeds for animals in the mail?!")... my finger just clicked.
Then I had to rush to buy an incubator and learn what to do. Enter BYC.

14 years later... I'm 3 years into a breeding project to make large & floofy (soft feathered) blue egg layers with spots (mottled), beards, and docile temperaments.
I currently have about 20 adults and 28 juveniles / chicks (3 different batches).
But the number is always changing as we hatch and rehome/cull those unsuitable.
We're currently entering a subtraction phase of chicken math, so I expect to be down to 25 +/- before Feb. If it's 30 that's only because some of them don't count for some reason...

Why did I start this? Well, every year we got new chicks, thinking we really wanted XYZ breed any given year. But soon enough we'd find something less than awesome about the breed and finally we'd run through enough that I realized what I wanted didn't exist (yet). So, I realized it would take years, but figured we'd been keeping chickens enough years already, might as well spend the next ones doing what I wanted.

We had an English Orpington rooster with the sweetest, most paternal personality, that I never imagined a rooster could have. He was huge with spots. But the breed lays kinda boring eggs.
We had some pure Ameraucana and I loved the eggs and curious intelligence they have, not to mention the beards, but they looked small next to the Orp and they didn't have spots.
Hatched from them and soon enough we had chocolate and lavender as well. So they have been very fun and they are well behaved chickens to have around.