CHICKEN MATH STRIKES AGAIN

[CountryAgain]

I am glad I am not alone in this battle with chicken math. When I moved to the country, I wanted a couple of chickens (maybe a rooster and hen). My son's coworker had 10 4-month old chickens. One started crowing and she can't have roosters in her neighborhood, so we took him. A couple of weeks later, she found that she had another rooster, so we agreed to take him also if she gave us a hen. So we were up to 3 but we thought that one rooster was lonely since the hen liked the other rooster, so we went to an auction and got 6 hens and 2 roosters (we were not allowed to bid on just hens). So we had 11 chickens and decided that was all we would have. Then the 2 new roosters and 1 hen died so then we had 8. We had built two chicken pens to keep the two roosters separate, and we thought that "we have room for more chickens". One hen went broody and hatched 3 chicks. So we were up to 11. One hen died. Then another hen went broody and she hatched 10 this week, but 4 died. We are now up to 16 chickens. We are talking about building a larger "community" pen with a large run, but I know if we make it too big we will have to get more chickens to fill it. I am hoping another hen doesn't go broody before we build a bigger pen. So now we have a 16 month old GLW rooster, a 16 month old BSL rooster, five 1 year old BR hens, three 3 month old BR/BSL/GLW mixed pullets, and 6 new BR/BSL mix chicks. I intended to only have 2 chickens.

 

[KelsiNS]

We bought four. Two got ill and died. One escaped. So we bought four more. One was ill and died. We got a free replacement.

Then a rat killed three.

So i decided to order 30.

 

[CountryAgain]

A rat? I have never heard of a rat killing chickens. We have an occasional mouse in the coop. We don't have a problem with anything killing the chickens when they are in their pen because their pen is in the dog pen with an 80 lb dog and a fast 40 lb dog. When they are free-roaming, we have to worry about the family of hawks that hang around, but one of our roosters is very protective of his hens so unfortunately, I think he would die trying to save them.

 

[KelsiNS]

Yep, i was shocked to see one so large, but there he was covered in blood and feathers

 

[txnative]

So i decided to order 30.

I almost spit out my wine, laughing, when I read this!

 

[cherwill]

I almost spit out my wine, laughing, when I read this!

It shows a firm grasp of chicken math, doesn't it?!

 

[elliechooks]

I didn't really want chickens, too much hard work, and anyway I hardly ever buy eggs, no-one eats them. But 2 years after moving to a place with a good sized garden so many people kept saying 'are you going to get some chickens' I finally gave in! My sister bought me 3 pol pullets for Christmas. I soon found out that they are not hard work at all and really rewarding. And 2/3 eggs a day was just not enough! So I bought another 2, thinking that's it, maybe buy another 2 the year after next when the laying starts to drop off. So then one went broody.... Well it's nature and I couldn't deny her, so I got some hatching eggs, but then she decided not to sit and the eggs went into a borrowed incubator. Only one hatched and that was a roo so more eggs into the incubator. 3 hatched this time. This is enough for the year, I'm happy. BUT then another broody, and I would love to try a natural hatch.... So 8 eggs under the broody and 12 in the incubator as a back up in case the broody doesn't hatch hers. Anyway, by now we are missing the extra egg because that broody was a really good layer! So I bought another 2 POL..... So nearly 8 months on from maybe having a couple of hens we now have 19 birds (of which I think 6 are Roos so some will have to go) and another 12 in the incubator. Me addicted? Noooooo surely not!

 

[blriehl]

I'm so glad I'm not alone!!! I started out with 9 (from tractor supply), my husband warned me to get 15... Then I had four roosters from that batch; sold two & then got 8 chicks from a hatchery. Then I traded my third rooster from the previous bunch for three "hens". When I arrived she handed me three chicks that were too young to tell . Then one of my 8 chicks turn out to be a nasty Roo so I just sold him, but then 3 more BLRW turned out to be Roos so I decided to keep 1 of the 3. Now, I have to find homes for the other two! LOL

 

[mithious]

We bought four. Two got ill and died. One escaped. So we bought four more. One was ill and died. We got a free replacement.

Then a rat killed three.

So i decided to order 30.

 

[CrazyCatCulby]

My little flock started out as one stray OEG hen that decided to roost in our garage one night. We found out later that it was our neighbor's, and that he had let her go to fend for herself when the rest of his chickens (about twenty hens) were killed by some critter that had gotten into their coop.

Now, I didn't earn the nickname "Ellie Mae" for nothing... by then I already had two cats and a couple parakeets, and I was constantly reading up about every kind of bird, mammal, reptile, and amphibian and convincing myself that I needed one of everything. I had asked for chickens every year in the spring, batting the "puppy-dog" eyes to my parents as I held the baby chicks at the feed store. The name "Lucy" popped up ("I Love Lucy" was my mom's favorite show) and it fit perfectly because the hen was wheaton colored, and therefore had a red-head like the TV star.

So once Lucy was moved in to the newly built coop my wonderful father built, I decided, well, one lonely hen can't possibly be happy, could she? And one smallish egg a day couldn't possibly be enough. My mom found a local breeder who sold us two barred rock hens for 5 bucks apiece.

These two hens were certainly not quiet and sweet like little Lucy. They were bossy, greedy and overall quiet scrappy. Well, since we were going with the theme of famous TV/movie characters, they had to be called Thelma and Louise. Thelma quickly established herself as the matriarch, giving a firm peck to anyone who got out of line.

Sometime later, I found myself with a wonderful lady with a farm, where I helped out when her mother was ill. Today, we have animal therapy for handicapped people. Anyway, one year she hatched out several random chicks from her rather large and assorted flock. One of the babies was a white Cochin bantam hen. My "adopted mother", as the woman soon came to be known, gave me the little bantam as a gift for my help. I took her home and bathed her and petted her and played with her, and soon she was following my parents and I around the yard as if we were the mother hen! She must have been about three months old then. She was quite the talkative baby; constantly peeping her friendly, sometimes coo-like song. Originally, her name was Ethel (Lucy's friend in the TV show) but "Peepers" seemed to be a much better fitting name.

Of course, Lucy, the gentle hen who went broody every year, took Lil Peeps under her wing. They kept up this arrangement, even in the following spring when both decided to go broody. This year, my adopted mother gave me five (hopefully!) fertile eggs, under the condition that the babies be given back to the farm. Those two determined hens sat on those eggs together the whole three weeks. Finally, three fuzzy little babies were trailing along behind the proud mothers as they showed them everything that had to do with being a chicken.

The happy little family was only a week old when a terrible tragedy happened--a couple neighborhood dogs came along and killed poor Lucy. I like to think that she sacrificed herself so her babies could have a chance, but, what do I know.

Peepers proved herself to be an excellent mother; with her thick, downy cochin feathers, she kept everyone warm and insulated at night until one day, she had had enough. Several firm pecks apiece and those teenaged-chickens figured it out.

Now what? We couldn't get rid of the babies. We had already lost Lucy, and what if some other tragedy occurred? My parents finally agreed to let me keep the two roosters and one hen. Well, maybe one rooster has to go...

As of currently, my little flock is made up of two barred rocks, a cochin banty, a silkie/cochin cross cockerel, a maran cockerel, and a sumatra/ silkie cross hen. I can't wait for next spring, when I can save Peepers' little eggs so that she can hatch some of her own biological chicks. Just a few, though, maybe three, or five, or twelve...

Wait, why do I need that many? Dang it, chicken math...