Chicken math is... fun. How do you manage your numbers?

[Melontine]

What are the appenzellers like? They're so beautiful, i'm curious to know their personality.

Oh I adore them and their funky hair and spots. They are very interesting birds. They aren't aggressive or fearful, but certainly don't want to be touched. I have one who just likes to walk in front of me and sometimes tries to challenge my feet but the rest all just circle around waiting for treats.
It's a struggle to get them in at night, they prefer high up tree branches to any roosting bar.
They've just started laying too, for some reason they don't want to use the actual nesting boxes but instead make a nest on the coop floor.

 

[Celeste Cannon]

I don't think I can own enough birds to have some cool chicken math, but it sounds like fun to do so im going to!

December 2017: First 3 chicks! 2 silkies 1 orange cochin. left us with our porcelain silkie roo Jay-z

April 2018: Couldn't help but buy 3 more chicks at the feed store. 1 americauna 1 olive egger 1 welsummer. Now owner of 5 hens, 1 rooster

August 2018: Silkie went broody and we got her 2 adopted babies, leaving us with 1 white pekin and 1 gold laced pekin roo
Now owner of 6 hens, 2 roosters

September 2018: Bought 6 wonderful little chicks, 2 polish, 2 cochin, 1 cuckoo maran. Now owner of 12 hens, 2 roosters

February 2019: My gold laced polish was decapitated by a raccoon my favorite hen. Now owner of 11 hens, 2 roosters

May 2019: Silkie went broody again, surprised me by hatching a barnyard mix of silkie and olive egger. Now owner of 12 hens, 2 roosters

April 2020: Silkie hatched an ayam cemani egg! Now owner of 13 hens, 2 roosters

May 2020: Silkie got sick, passed away Now owner of 12 hens, 2 roosters

Today! (September 2020): Happily owning 14 chickens, and 2 quail. But my last polish girl is sick . The vet thinks it's west nile, I hope she makes it. She's very dear to me.

 

[Melontine]

I don't think I can own enough birds to have some cool chicken math, but it sounds like fun to do so im going to!

December 2017: First 3 chicks! 2 silkies 1 orange cochin. left us with our porcelain silkie roo Jay-z

April 2018: Couldn't help but buy 3 more chicks at the feed store. 1 americauna 1 olive egger 1 welsummer. Now owner of 5 hens, 1 rooster

August 2018: Silkie went broody and we got her 2 adopted babies, leaving us with 1 white pekin and 1 gold laced pekin roo
Now owner of 6 hens, 2 roosters

September 2018: Bought 6 wonderful little chicks, 2 polish, 2 cochin, 1 cuckoo maran. Now owner of 12 hens, 2 roosters

February 2019: My gold laced polish was decapitated by a raccoon my favorite hen. Now owner of 11 hens, 2 roosters

May 2019: Silkie went broody again, surprised me by hatching a barnyard mix of silkie and olive egger. Now owner of 12 hens, 2 roosters

April 2020: Silkie hatched an ayam cemani egg! Now owner of 13 hens, 2 roosters

May 2020: Silkie got sick, passed away Now owner of 12 hens, 2 roosters

Today! (September 2020): Happily owning 14 chickens, and 2 quail. But my last polish girl is sick . The vet thinks it's west nile, I hope she makes it. She's very dear to me.

Hopes she makes a full recovery, poor girl

 

[Compost King]

I sell when I can and freezer camp when I can't. Breed the best and eat the rest.

Pretty much sums up what I do. Sell and Eat... and if I can't sell a laying female for what ever reason I give them away to people who have bought chickens from me in the past and if they live close enough I deliver. I found that chickens are not like cats, if you end up with too many they are fairly easy to get rid of. They are a high demand species. Roosters on the other hand are tough to even give away, I try to process them young if I have no intention to breed them, even if I only get enough chicken to make broth. The sooner I get rid of them the better.

 

[aart]

I found that chickens are not like cats, if you end up with too many they are fairly easy to get rid of.

 

[reddogmaster2]

Discipline people, discipline...

 

[CHlCKEN]

I started this year with 11 birds. 10 hens, 1 rooster. It was a pretty good fit. All Buff Opringtons, and they were all good birds, not a lot of variety though.
Today, I have 40 birds. 26 hens/pullets, 8 roosters/cockerels, 6 unsexed chicks.
How did this happen? Well...

April-
We stuck 12 eggs in the incubator, hatching 10 Buff Oprington chicks. Same time we ordered 10 Appenzeller pullets, we lost three from transport/over the next couple days.
We were up to 28 birds.

May-
Ordered 18 silkie eggs online, a couple of eggs were refunded, a couple didn't develop, hatched 11 silkies in the end.
Had a hen go broody and hatch 3 more Buff Orpington chicks.
Sadly lost 2 hens from a raccoon
Up to 40 birds

June-
Sent 2 Buff Orpington hens to live with grandparents. We plan to keep switching birds out with them as it helps them with food security.
Down to 38 birds

July-
Processed 4 cockerels
Down to 34 birds

August-
Sold 2 Buff Orpington hens, 3 Buff Orpington pullets, & 1 silkie pullet
Had another hen go broody, hatched 7 eggs, sadly 1 didn't make it.
Still at 34 birds

September-
Impulse purchased 6 more chicks; 2 isa brown, 2 black sex link, 2 amberlink
Now up to 40 again

: )

Plans for this fall;

Mostly getting rid of some roosters.
Selling 4 silkie cockerels, and processing 3+ Buff Orpingtons. By the end, we plan to just have 1 silkie rooster left. We might choose to add another rooster next year, but it'll be someone not related to any of our current birds. Probably one already raised with a good temperament that someone just needs to rehome.

This year will leave us with around 6 silkies, 7 appenzeller, 2 isa brown, 2 black sex link, 2 amberlink, and between 8-14 Buff Opringtons.
So between 27 and 33 birds depending on how things go.
We may end up processing or rehome more, or we could always lose more to predators, injury, or disease. But chicken match is fun. Numbers go up and down very quickly. It's nice to have a good variety, and I'm looking forward to seeing all these chicks as adult birds.

This wonderfully describes the actions of any chicken enthusiast. Chicken math is a real thing guys next step? HOUSE CHICKENS!

 

[Blw18]

Chicken math for me had been pretty even most of the time...bringing in a few birds, breeding the best, selling some, eating some, losing some to predators...but the in last few months of quarantine boredom it’s been addition addition addition multiplication addition addition MULTIPLICATION. And the thing is, I’m normally very disciplined about keeping numbers low. It wasn’t until I walked out of the back door to feed the other day that the sight and sound of who knows how many chickens running to me from the barn reminded me of the great wildebeest migration in Africa that I realized I had a problem!!

 

[Ruthster55]

Here are a few of the cuties that hatched this year.

Started with 10 or 11 in February. Then we had a big succession of broody hatches that are noted in a spreadsheet because there were so many! Yes, MS Excel to keep up with chicken math is a thing here!

When the number was up to around 45, I sold two lots of four chicks each to friends to help them with food security!

Sold two more, and then we ate 3 roosters and an older hen, plus had a hen disappear.

After all the subtraction, there are now around 30 with four purchased birds in quarantine.

And the first chick hatched this year is now a gray hen that is on eggs....