Chicken Math?

[ssellis]

I decided it was best not to count that way i can keep building my flock. that is till i run out of room. i am now out of room total 30 plus 2 ducks.

 

[SouthDakotan]

I have to share this quote

from my partner & best friend, Eric, regarding all my birds!!

"If you drink beer from a small glass, you can still get drunk if you drink thirty,or from one big bottle!!"

We were talking about my desire to build more coops. I currently have two open air pens, one large closed-roof coop, one small open-air pen & one tractor! I was talking about wanting a Turkey pen and making some A frame coops!

 

[SouthDakotan]

My chicken math:
Thought city ordinance allowed 3
Told hubby I'd be getting 6
Ordered 8 in case some died
Picked up the 8 and realized they looked lonely and small in that big ol' brooder

Went to the local feed store same day and got 4 more
Waited a week and went to browse the feed store again, it was my birthday so of course bring home 3 more
Hubby officially thinks I'm off my rocker to have 15 chickens in the house
Found out yesterday I can actually have 19-20 chickens on my size of property!!!

SERIOUSLY considering going back for 4-5 more this week before the age difference gets too big

I now have 15 pullets but will end up with 20 before next year

They are: 4 Rhode Island Red, 4 Buff Orpington, 3 Black Australorp, 2 Ameraucanas, 2 Welsummer

Nice MATH!!! LoL My partner & help mate, also thinks I'm nuts but he's tolerating the feather invasion

I agreed with him ONLY to get 6 chicks this year. So I ordered 12 via Ideal Hatchery. Then thought about it and realized I would be waiting all summer for eggs! So I posted on BestFarmBuys and asked if anyone had OLD layers they might be replacing. Found an area farm wife willing to sell me her old flock of hens for $1 each. That will be 32 more

. Then I learned of a free Silkie roo, if I'd buy 3 hens. So I did!

Then decided I didn't have enough ducks. I had ordered, in my Ideal order some drake ducklings, but they'd be far too young for my 2 yr old hens! So of course, I asked around and found someone with adult drakes. So I ordered 2 drakes. Then discovered she had muscovy pairs! So I ordered a pair! Then learned she was culling her excess drakes... so I bought 15 and she gave me 9 additional. Total Ducks now: 24.

This is in additional to the 12 fertile turkey eggs I have coming in May and the Pigeons I am to be receiving. May be also getting quail come June.

Mind you my feather addiction comes out to be:

36 chickens (see there is a 6 in the number!!)
24 ducks
14 pigeons
12 turkey EGGS
2 cockatiels
2 zebra finches

Remember he didn't say ONLY Chickens.... and there is 6, just its multiplied by 6! He failed to say no multiplication included!

 

[hooadefender]

heheheh just added 4 ducklings to the feathered madness now still working on the wife for a peacock

 

[OneLostHen]

I have had chickens for a little over a month now...

Oh and the math has begun.....

Started with 2 Light Brahmas.. Thinking one is a Roo.........................2-1????
Found a duckling and took it in........................................................ 2+1=3
Said duckling needed a friend, so I went to get a chick...................... 3+1=4
Duckling died :-( .............................................................................4-1=3
But chick needed friend now... So went and got another chick!!! .........3+1=4!!!!

Started with 2 now up to 4. Might be 3 if that LB is a Roo....

I swear Im stopping at 4... I swear Im stopping at 4...... I swear Im stopping at 4........

ITS NOT WORKING!!!

 

[ange92040]

I know everyone calls it chicken math but we here at our house we call it chickenitis
we started with four lost one then got three pullets on a Sat then two more pullets on Sunday so far we have 8 we said we would only have four now we are at 8
when you get chickenitis you really get it and there seems to be no cure. lol

 

[SouthDakotan]

Chicken Math struck me down

We agreed to have 6.

So I ordered from Ideal Hatchery 12, lost one due to shipping stress. Then had an offer of some old hens, so agreed. Making another 19.Then had a chance to get a free Silkie Roo if I bought three hens. So of course I agreed! Then the roo started crowing too much so he was quickly rehomed. Then realized my old hens are really reducing their eggs (only 3 a day) which just won't do. And none of my baby chicks are heavy breeds, so I went to Runnings Fleet & Farm and bought 4 Black Australorp and 2 Buff Orpington pullet chicks. Then had a chance to buy some "hobbit chickens" (that's what my husband calls them due to the feathers on the feet), so I got them yesterday.

Today I counted heads in the brooder and there are a total of 22 chicks plus the 19 Ole hens out in the yard; plus 3 full grown silkies!

That doesn't count the ducks I have!

Remember there are only 6

 

[chickchickchiky]

I think i have you all beat on the chicken math i think i have officially lost count lol let me see if i can break it down. Built a large coop for some chickens for eggs and to eat as well so we knew it was going to be a few.

Got 6 Cornish X one died so total =5

started with an order of 15 from e-fowl 5-RIR 5-JG 5-Assorted heavies 3 peanut packers = 18

Ordered 2-Chinese geese females 2 Peking duck pair around Easter along with 6-EE and they put in 4 more peanuts total= 14

Traded 4 chicks for one RIR roo adult

so i had 34 babies at this point

Ordered 2 brown Chinese geese pair and 2-Yokohama chicks and they sent me Africans instead of Chinese and 2 extra Yoko's i called about the geese so they sent me the total= 8 + 6 PP =14 1 yoko died so = 13

Got 16 Guinea's in the brooder as well

4 Welsh Harlequin ducks local buy =4

So total overall birds accumulated in the span of 2 months = 67 birds


and i am trying to hatch silkies starting this week! So how is that for chicken math!!!!

Now keep in mind we are going to eat some of these and we own a 40 acre ranch so space is not an issue.

We did have to dig a pond for the water fowl which i am loving so yeah i have officially gone to the birds lol

 

[Cheeky Chick]

I am good at chicken math, apparently.
Decided to get 5, came home with 9, considering 2 more...

I can't go back. I'll come home with 9 more. Hide the car keys!!!

 

[mgulrud]

My chicken math didnt even start with chickens. It all started with the TSC chick days. I have always wanted chickens, and many other animals, im a farm boy at heart. I grew up on a farm, but my wife.. she's a city girl from the streets of Chicago. It started out very innocently i swear. "Honey, I'm taking the boys to TSC to look at the baby chicks, maybe get them a pet duck." Ha, she fell for it. On the way there we planed it out, 2 boys, 2 ducks. And so it started. We walked out of TSC with 4 baby mallards. I knew this would be 3-4 too many for my wife. "Dont worry honey, they are Mallards, they will just fly away" Whew that was close. Well, let me tell you, if a duckling wont melt a gals heart i dont know what will. 2 weeks later we had to go get some more feed at the TSC! woot, snuck home 2 baby Pekins. This was ok, she liked the cute little yellow ducks, she liked them so much she didnt notice the other side of the brooder had 8 Red Sex Links in it for several days. Another week or two went by and I built them a nice coop, a huge fenced in run (just to keep the dog out mainly, it was only 4" tall so they could fly over it.) even put in a little pond for them.

By now the ducks were getting big, the Pekings were big and pretty white, and the Mallards had so much color. One morning though two of the Mallards had gone missing. I heard it wasnt uncommon for them to fly away, maybe to return from time to time. I was sad, but the next day the other two Mallards were gone. Now i was really sad, loved them little guys, so i was excited when the next mornign the smallest, cutest Mallard was back! (for good too) but somethign was missing! Aha, I got it... I went online and ordered up 3 embden geese, again, she was totally fine with it, she likes them pretty white birds. So our flock was pretty set, we had 8 Chickens, and 3 ducks, that should do it.

And then..... We lost a goose!!! S!@* I knew it was a raccon. We knew we would have some losses to wildlife because we tried to freerange the birds as much as we could in a safe way, but my freakin goose! are you kidding me? The next night we lost a chicken, and the next night 2 more chickens. Something had to be done. The dog was now trained not to chase the birds so we set him on a routine of running around the pen, encouraging him to mark his area, we put up some lights, and set live traps nearby, I also began building a large, two story coop for all the birds.

You know what happens when you have a large chicken coop and some free time? Craigslist thats what... In one weekend we picked up 9 more Pekins and 11 more mixed chickens. And thats were we are today. 11 Pekins, 1 Mallard, 5 Sex Link, 3 Polish, 5 Americauna, 1 Cochin, 2 Barred Rock. Our flock is looking like a flock. Now... all i gotta do is find a couple Cayuga Ducks, and some more mixed chickens to add "color". lol