Chicken math prevailed!

[mamablair]

Chicken math may be getting me in trouble again, looks like both my silkies may be cockerels. Which obviously means I need more silkies.

 

[HAPPYCHICKENLADY17]

i started with 4 barred rock, then got 2 white plymouth rock, then 2 easter eggers, then got 2 olive eggers, then 2 ameraucanas, then i just had to have 2 silver laced wyandottes and then got 3 buff orps...turned out one of them was a roos...after a few weeks, i decided i did not want any roosters, so i rehomed him, when i went to visit him i saw a silkie chicken and i rescued him from the same farm that i donated my BO roos, then went to rural king and got 2 silkies and a white crested polish.....when they were 4 weeks old on a warm florida night i put them outside in the coop ..the next morning one silkie and the polish were gone, eaten by a raccoon....so that left my little 4 week old silkie by its lonesome...sent my hubby to the feed store to get it a companion, and came home with a little baby Buff orp chick, since then went to TSC for the first time to buy chickes cause i wanted some bantams, got 4...2 turned out to be hens, yokohama bantams and the other 2 were cockerels, i rehomed those 2 cockerels...so the little silkie that survived the raccoon issue, turned out to be a roos and the rescue silkie i got is a roos....i still have those 2 roos...then off to rural king , cuz i want a silkie pullet....so i get 3 silkies and 2 frizzles...out of those 5 my one frizzle is crowing and one of my silkies is also crowing, now i just wait and see what the other 2 silkies and the other frizzle do, whether they crow or they lay eggs.....as it stands now i have 4 roos....3 silkies and one frizzle....i hate to part with them , they are so cute,,,,,

 

[Manhen]

We started with 6 then I *had* to take the kids to the feed store with me and that brought home another 6, 2 of which are accidental meat birds (TSC and their mislabeled bins and employees that have never had anything to do with chickens) so technically just 4 since our 2 Cornishes will be culled in a couple of weeks now. Then I go back with the whole family because we need feed and I wanted my husband to show me what he was talking about us using for the run and, of course, we can't leave without a peeping box. Our count was at 18 total with 2 to be culled early (I'm so sad because they're so sweet!) and that was satisfying. Our coop is plenty big to handle this many and more. More. A friend calls to tell me new chicks are in and they're marking down chicks and I can't help myself, I want at least 3. So we agree to split the order. She gets them and then radio silence. For a full 24 hours. Husband sees my disappointment and can't stand it so off to TSC we go and you can't buy less than 6 so.... chicken math. 24 chicks, 3 separate brooders, plenty of love to go around. After researching so much, I'm fairly certain that out of our first 6 Australorps, only 2 are actually Australorps. Unless 4-5 week old Black Australorp juvenile feathers are barred....? So I think we're actually looking at either Cuckoo Marans or Barred Rocks as both were for sale at the same time and many were in the same bins together. I really wish that TSC would hire people during chick days who have some kind of experience with chickens. Husband is officially, lovingly, referred to as the Chicken Man around these parts. We have one specific "Australorp" that adores him. Picture for cuteness. View attachment 1882468
For now, our flock stays at 24....... until I have to go back to get feed and they end up getting something in that I just can't say no to. Does everyone have this problem? I can't help myself.

I have my fjrst batch of 30 at 8 weeks now, second batch at 4 weeks, and third batch arrives Friday. Math? I am a chemist, it is chemistry, not the math that makes this work...

 

[MissMarple]

I'm absolutely loving reading everyone's chicken math stories!!!! I want to reply to everybody!!!!! Can't believe I've waited until this late in the day to get started!! hah!

 

[TropicalBabies]

You are living in an amazing part of the world. Only you can think that Bihar is amazing. It is a poverty stricken and crime infested place, only thing spacial about it is that Buddha spent a good part of his life here.
Well where I live coops are very different from that you see in the USA, we call them hen house. They are only to hold the birds at night.

Ok. Maybe not Utopia... amazingly different from where most of us come from. Maybe I should have said exotic and one of the places in the world i would not mind seeing b4 i check out. Poverty stricken or not, India it has some "amazing" history, culture, floral and fauna and of course animals. Different strokes for different folks. Glad you are making the best out of this life. Stay well.

 

[cluckcluckhens]

I'm so sorry.

I can only guess what happened by your post. I too have room for more but we did not get this many. We got eight chicks in May and one is Cockerel and is looking fine and dandy right now.

I believe next time "try to go by yourself" without the family.

I look but I don't buy allot.

24= A little more feed than 8 and it last longer.

Take a deep breath and exhale relax and enjoy your chickens.

It is hard to say NO to cute fuzzy chicks and going from bin to bin you keep wanting more and more and I understand that it is hard sometimes to say no. At two weeks old chicks stores usually mark them down to half off.

Again I am so sorry!

 

[MissMarple]

I'm so sorry.

I can only guess what happened by your post. I too have room for more but we did not get this many. We got eight chicks in May and one is Cockerel and is looking fine and dandy right now.

I believe next time "try to go by yourself" without the family.

I look but I don't buy allot.

24= A little more feed than 8 and it last longer.

Take a deep breath and exhale relax and enjoy your chickens.

It is hard to say NO to cute fuzzy chicks and going from bin to bin you keep wanting more and more and I understand that it is hard sometimes to say no. At two weeks old chicks stores usually mark them down to half off.

Again I am so sorry!

Haha! I'm fine with it! Of course, if ever I want to make myself NOT buy chickens, I just have to take my Mom! The one time I went and didn't bring chickens home was when she was with me. My daughter isn't old enough to ask for them but I figure that will happen in the next year or two, probably by next Fall. Going anywhere alone is a joke, hahah! At least one of the kids is always always with me. My son enjoys them, big time! For that matter, so do I! It's an addiction I can live with!

 

[MissMarple]

This is Charlie, my roo that I got from @BlueBaby, I think that I've understood from research that if you mate a NN Roo aka Turken with a hen that has a fully feathered neck, you have a 50-50 chance of having a NN hatch from those eggs, from there you could take any NN and mate with the one that hatched and make more. Mating Brother and Sister or Dad and Daughter isn't a problem from what I understand. That is how a lot of folks get the traits that they want, take two that have closer traits to what they are wanting and then out of the hatches from those, eventually get the coloring and feathering they want, do you belong to your state's forum? you might have someone close that has the NN's.View attachment 1883369

I LOVE Charlie!!!!! I do not!! Any idea where I might find that? Is that in the swap area? (Oh Lord, my husband is going to divorce me... )

 

[MissMarple]

Why would you cull them? I have had "meat birds" as pets, and they turned out to be the best pet chickens there was, along with being a good extra large egg layer.

I wasn't planning to have meat birds. I was planning on egg layers and egg layers only. Hence why I was so ticked with TSC and their mislabeling. They are already twice the size of the rest of my flock and take a different kind of care if we were to choose to let them live. I've also now done a lot of research on them and before they get to a point where they could potentially die painfully (heart attack or whatnot) or be absolutely miserable because they're too large to walk, I'd like to end it humanely. Plus, I'd like to enjoy some homegrown yummy chicken dinners with my family. I'm not talking about culling them tomorrow but I'm not planning on them being around for a year either. As they grow, we'll choose the appropriate time to cull. As it stands, one appears to possibly be a roo so he would be getting culled anyway and the other one shouldn't have to be sad and alone. This may all be a moot point because, as a woman, I reserve the right to change my mind at any point, for any reason. But, I'm preparing myself for what I assume we will be doing anyway. My husband is pretty set on it.

 

[MissMarple]

if you have the option to free range em kick em out with your main flock to do that, takes a few times pushing them but then they don't need special diet and aren't so much work

That's part of my problem. I don't really have the option to fully free range them and none of my flock is outside yet. Chicken Man and I were discussing the possibility of building them a small-ish tractor to go ahead and get them outside and moving around much more than they are right now. They just sit/lay down all day and night... in their poo... I take them outside multiple times a week to MAKE them move but that's difficult to do the way I want to with everything else that goes on in this crazy house.