CHICKEN MATH STRIKES AGAIN

[Aeropennchick]

Darling, forgiving , understanding, city-boy husband is blaming Farmville. He says it's a gateway to the real thing.

Haha!

 

[Endur50]

It's a darn good thing I only have one small tractor or I would be out of control. Although a banty doesn't take up much space.....I think I see a spare inch on the roosting bar

 

[tinychicky]

we originally planned to get 4-5 hens. feedstore could only sell 12+ so we got 12...eventually hatched our way into the 20-25 range where we hovered a while, then when shooting up to 50+ with more eggs under the broodies. expecting more bantam cochins and serama babies in the next couple of weeks! Thank goodness I have a barn for all the coops and pens!

 

[Beckery49]

I must have a faulty calculator. It said 90!?!

 

[Silkie Chick]

Our chicken math goes like this... First, get 12 bantam chicks while living in city. Parents get tired of waiting for eggs so: add three old hens and a roo. One hen goes broody, up to nineteen. Kill males and back down to nine. Add three silkies. Add three OEG bantams. Lose 4 to city predators. Move to country. Purchase 40 large chicken breeds up to 50. Have another predator attack and lose 4 more. Have a few go broody, buy (more than) a few for Birthday presents, eat a few and now up to 90 birds (this includes ducklings). Friend going to the hatchery and picking up chicks.. 100+? With the broodies and juvies we get six eggs a (good) day. We are hoping the standards will start laying soon, though. This has all happened in little more than a year. That's chicken math for y'all.

 

[Beckery49]

My chicken math worked in reverse. After a medical retirement and DH still on the road, I decided I needed a 'project'. Got 10 chick hens and then decided I needed 20 more. DH came home and built a coop . Lost 1 on the way home, 5 to hawks and sold 10 and then 3 more to attrition. 11 left. They were grown and no roos=no chicks, so I got 6 duckies. 1 hen, 5 drakes. Fed the ducks 6 months and then a marauding dog had 6 duck dinners. TSC had duckies again this year and we wanted turkeys. 6 more quackers. I picked them out this time and we have 2 drakes and 4 hens. So of the 42 feathered friends we purchased, we have 17 in residence now.

 

[SC Yankee]

My math is substandard compared to some of these stories, yet, I'll do the math.

Never had chickens, never gave it much thought. Started watching what the bankers and the Federal reserve was doing. Studied Austrian Economics. Got more worried about the economy (my ability to continue a thing I call "eating"). Stocked up food. Looked at stockpile and didn't see much for fresh food except lots of vegetables grown on my property. Figured I needed protein. Thought about goats for meat and milk, but friends say they're terrible. Don't have room or grains for a cow or three. I thought "chickens". Self replenishing, easy to tend, chick food can be stored long term if stored properly(dry).

So, chickens were my choice of protein. Now how many did I need??? After research I figured I'd get .75 eggs per day. So, how many will I have to feed??? Myself ofcourse, then my parents if all hell breaks loose, that's 3 so far, then what about keeping my neighbors happy? That would add 12 more people(some I intentionally kept off this list for reasons I won't go into here). Don't think I'll need to feed them from day one, so as roos and hens do their thing, I can increase my flock. I figured to have two eggs per day for me and the folks, so that's 8 hens laying. Now I'd need meat too, but would one chicken a week suffice when augmented by my other stockpile? I tried to calculate the influx and outflow from this, but my math is failing me, so I just decided that 12 was a good number and that's what I got, then later decided to add 3 Redstars for eggs alone. Now that I'm typing this out, maybe I should figure on 3 chicken dinners a week (one for each adult).

The simple math would say if you want 3 dinners a week, then you'd need (3x52 weeks)=156 chickens but since they breed, the real number I'd need now would be substantially less, I just don't know how to calculate that. Given that they're at the peak of tenderness around 8-10 weeks of age, then I'd have to rotate 5-6 crops per year at 2-2.5 month intervals. 156/6=26 birds per cycle, or 26 hatched eggs per two months. What I don't know is the percentage of eggs actually hatch?

I have 15 birds, if the odds hold, then I'll have 12 hens, 3 roos. That means I should be getting 9 eggs a day, 6 of which will be eaten, leaving 3 to be hatched per day. Now if a success rate of 0.66 can be attained, then I'd get two per day hatched, that's 60 a month. That's well above the 26/two month cycle. Now since I plan to eat the meat as well, those numbers will drop. Then figure predator and gifting the neighbors(will need a strong community defense). Anyone got an algorythm to calculate this kind of thing????

I don't know , maybe I need more, just don't know. Anyone got any ideas? What do you see wrong with my thinking?

 

[BrownSheep]

I only wanted a couple.....about twelve. We go into order and my father says I HAVE to get six of what ever types I wanted. Well I picked two...he liked some other ones....and twelve grew to 36. A couple died...but then we discovered eBay hatching eggs. Hatched out 3 marans and two welsummers. And you know I need some turkeys. Two of the turkeys died. Then a friend of friend was unable to take care of his chickens due to cancer. So that puts me at what I think is 48chickens and two turkeys.. Eggs in the incubator, and 18 turkeys to be delivered.....I think I need some more.

 

[billyb]

You'll be good on thanks giving turkeys for the next 20 years!! Haha. Are you using them for meat?

 

[gryeyes]

Our in city chicken limit is 4 so I have exactly as many chickens as your car has tires, 4 and a spare. If someone asks you how many tires does you car have, what do you say? You say 4, then perhaps you say, oh and a spare. Well that's what I tell people.

I like the way you think. Unfortunately, my flock has far exceeded the number of wheels for a semi with triple trailers!

I still like the way you think.