Chicken Math

[Iluveggers]

How many chickens did you start out with? (Answer in poll)

How many was the highest you had (if you know), and how many do you have currently (if you know)? Leave a comment to show how your flock has grown!

 

[AmeraucanaHank]

How many chickens did you start out with? (Answer in poll)

How many was the highest you had (if you know), and how many do you have currently (if you know)? Leave a comment to show how your flock has grown!

Do you mean the first time I got chickens?

 

[AmeraucanaHank]

Chicks or chickens?

 

[Battlepants]

*Inherited 3 hens when I moved to this house.
*Purchased 5 chicks from a farm a few hours from here.
*Lost a chick due to escaping from the yard and getting caught by my dog. Secured the yard better.
*Lost a hen due to (suspected) bad food, extreme cold and possibly other issues.
*Lost a chick (which turned out to be a cockerel) to a hawk. Provided secured run.
*Adopted a local cockerel.
*Cockerel and my silkie pullet did not get along, so those were separated.
*Built a secondary coop for cockerel and his 4 hens to live in. Silkie lived alone in the original coop.
*Purchased 8 chicks from farm store to ease breeding of 4 hens and to give company to silkie.
*Raised chicks and integrated into silkie coop.
*Silkie decided to go broody, gave 5 eggs, 4 hatched.
*Silkie coop is too crowded and the littles are getting picked on, moved farmstore pullets to the cockerel coop.
*Silkie is currently living happily taking care of her 4 little nuggets.
*Cockerel is happy with his four girls.
*Farmstore Pullets are still getting used to the new setup and are mostly staying in the coop. I go in there several times a day to make sure they are getting down off the roost bars to eat and drink but they seem overall well.

And this is where we currently stand. 1 year later and I've gone from 3 hens to a total of 18 chickens. Will probably be downsizing soon though. Planning on waiting for some of the farmstore pullets to start laying and then rehoming them.

 

[AmeraucanaHank]

*Silkie is currently living happily taking care of her 4 little nuggets.

What breeds are her babies?

 

[Battlepants]

What breeds are her babies?

The father is (mostly) black australorp. He's pretty accurate to the australorp breed, but has some white lines in his hackles.

The mothers are:
2x Rhode Island Red
1x Easter Egger (that kinda looks like a hawk)
1x Easter Egger (that's just a big plump yellow thing with a beard and sideburns)

Think I am most excited for the RIR mixes happening here. My RIR is an absolute champ of a layer - nearly every day, I get a huge egg from her. I hear the australorps are very good layers too, so excited to see what happens here.

 

[Chicken Heel]

My Grandpa Shook got me started 55 years ago with a bantam hen and 12 chicks. A year later I had over 80 from that grouping having their own chicks. Through the years I have had a maximum of 142 birds and currently stand at 65 with most of those being bantams. I have a great understanding of how chicken math works as it has been a lifetime of practicing it.

 

[Battlepants]

My Grandpa Shook got me started 55 years ago with a bantam hen and 12 chicks. A year later I had over 80 from that grouping having their own chicks. Through the years I have had a maximum of 142 birds and currently stand at 65 with most of those being bantams. I have a great understanding of how chicken math works as it has been a lifetime of practicing it.

How do you even keep track of 142 birds? I feel like a few may disappear in the daily processes and go completely unnoticed. I'm already having trouble keeping track of my flocks of 5 and 13 and those are confined to secured coops and runs.

 

[Iluveggers]

Do you mean the first time I got chickens?

Yes, start vs current flock

Chicks or chickens?

Whatever you started with!

 

[AmeraucanaHank]

Yes, start vs current flock

Whatever you started with!

Okay, then I stared of with 2 splendid buff orpingtons! (sadly both passed away) but now I have 2 more baby buff orpingtons!