Chicken Math Got Me Bad....

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

My birds just turned one
It was a little too close a call for getting them "little siblings" for their one year hatchiversary
"Hmmm December minimums can be 8. I can do that... but shipping is less if you get fifteeeeennnnn.... I should get an assortment, which will put me at 16.... but I really want those too-"
And when the cart reached 31 I was like "....naaah, I can't"

 

[Project Blue]

My name is Nina and I hatch chicks and math was my worst subject in school. My problem is I hatch shipped eggs, often in small quantities. If I hatch just one out of six eggs, I have to go to the feed store or bigger mistake send my dear husband the enabler in to buy a few more chicks to keep the loner company. He has two master degrees, electrical engineering and chemical and still can't do chicken math. His solution is to build more coops. I am too ashamed to actually say how many coops we have, what's worse I have to think about to come up with a number. I need to get past denial to even count how many chickens I have.

 

[MROO]

For those that say the chicken math got them bad, post pics of your coop/run to see if we can feel your pain.......With that said, no chickens here yet, but the 14th is the day 4 hens come home. I don't want a rooster, plus my coop is only 40" x 60" inside, so my flock size is limited, unless I "remodel"

Y'know, going "up" with more roosts adds more space ... just sayin' ...

 

[MROO]

For those that say the chicken math got them bad, post pics of your coop/run to see if we can feel your pain.......With that said, no chickens here yet, but the 14th is the day 4 hens come home. I don't want a rooster, plus my coop is only 40" x 60" inside, so my flock size is limited, unless I "remodel"

Yes, it used to be my kids' playhouse ... now it's MINE!
The 9' high cabin is the main coop, with the two "sandboxes" serving as one large run that can be divided for ga 4x2' box off the back that used to be a grow-out coop, but has since been commandeered by the hens as a nesting box/broody hideout. The small coop opens up to the old swingset. That will eventually become a large, covered run, but for now, it's just enclosed by a large dog kennel with a tarp over it. It's definitely not escape-proof (hopefully that'll happen in the Spring,) so my girls-n-boys (2) have to be supervised in there. There are too many predators here for true free-ranging.

I've had as many as 27 in there - mostly tiny bantams, but it's currently home to 16. My main flock has always been Nankin bantams, but there are a couple of Nankin/EE bantam crosses (I'm a sucker for tiny, green eggs!) I also have one standard (Sapphire Gem) and Boo, a smallish Silkie/BJG cross. She was a happy accident, the last of Herman The House Rooster's get. When Boo goes (she's almost 8) there will be tears!

 

[hammyanne]

Here’s my set up, wrapped up for winter! I built before deciding my flock would free-range (on nearly 5 acres), so now my birds only go back to the run/coop to roost.. which meant I suddenly had “more space”

 

[Sefirothe]

We had some single digit temps recently so I lugged the heater out to the coop. There goes my electric bill…

I know they probably don’t need it and if the littles were closer to full grown I probably wouldn’t have bothered. I’ve used this heater in the past more to keep eggs from freezing and cracking but no one is laying at the moment. I only plan on turning it on set to as low as it will go if the temps are in the single digits for now.

Integration continues to go well. I’ve seen a couple of the littles investigating the hanging adult feeders containing pelleted food. So probably after the 50 lb bag of chick feed I just opened gets used up I won’t buy another.

They still aren’t sleeping up on the roost at night, but they like to hang out up there and sunbathe during the day.

 

[MROO]

We had some single digit temps recently so I lugged the heater out to the coop. There goes my electric bill…

I know they probably don’t need it and if the littles were closer to full grown I probably wouldn’t have bothered. I’ve used this heater in the past more to keep eggs from freezing and cracking but no one is laying at the moment. I only plan on turning it on set to as low as it will go if the temps are in the single digits for now.

View attachment 4265204


Integration continues to go well. I’ve seen a couple of the littles investigating the hanging adult feeders containing pelleted food. So probably after the 50 lb bag of chick feed I just opened gets used up I won’t buy another.

View attachment 4265205

View attachment 4265206

They still aren’t sleeping up on the roost at night, but they like to hang out up there and sunbathe during the day.

Beautiful babies! If you start mixing some pellets in with their crumble now, the more reluctant youngsters will be more likely to try them, too. It should make that final transition much easier.

 

[Sefirothe]

Beautiful babies! If you start mixing some pellets in with their crumble now, the more reluctant youngsters will be more likely to try them, too. It should make that final transition much easier.

That’s a pretty good idea. I actually might just stick a second feeder with the pelleted food in their brooder that’s been converted to a feeding station the adults can’t gain access to. I’d be curious to see how much of the adult pellets get eaten vs the chick crumbles.