Chicken math - what's your story?

[CarolJ]

Originally wanted 7. Bought a coop that was perfect for a flock of 7. Loved having them - watched chicken TV for hours. Seven months later we have a much much bigger coop and run - and about 50 altogether. But chicks don't really count - so that brings us down to 23 - and only 7 of those (the original 7) are actually laying now. So we're still at 7.

 

[brandislee]

I planned on having 20-30, and I currently have 22, so at the moment I'm good... but it got a little out of hand last fall. For four weeks I had 100 broilers in tractors (4 weeks overlap of two batches of 50). I had the hair brained idea that if I raised 100 and sold 75 of them they would pay for the 25 I kept for my family. They did, in money at least, but the amount of work and stress was so not worth it. They are SO much more work to take care of- they drink so much, even with 5 gallon waterers in each pen of 50 I was hauling water three times a day, making sure they had shade on the hot days and were out of the wind on cold days (they were in PVC tractors with only part of 3 sides and part of the roof sheltered), moving two tractors every day... and I had more losses than normal both as chicks and older chickens, and had to process some early. I said the same with my (smaller) spring batch, but never again.

My plans for 2012... I'm adding 20ish Buckeyes, 10 guineas, 25 gold stars, and probably hatching 10 or so of my own (but only if someone goes broody this spring...)... plus 75 or so freedom rangers. Then in the fall I will process probably 18 or 19 of the original 22 (not the bantams) as well as 4 or so of the guineas, any surplus roosters from the buckeye batch (getting straight run), and any surplus roosters from those I hatch myself (and obviously the freedom rangers will be processed late spring/early summer). My goal is to only have 40 or so to overwinter next winter to make sure I have plenty of indoor space (I use open mobile coops in the summer).