Chicken math!

[jahphotogal]

I never thought I'd fall victim to chicken math....

We started last spring with six birds...one roo got rehomed, one pullet disappeared (we blame the neighbor's dog): we were down to 4. Got two more (an OE and an EE that turned out to lay brown eggs) from a backyard breeder: up to 6. Neighbor's dog came back: down to 5. (We went to the dog warden, put up a fence, and all was well.)
Early this spring, a hawk got one: 4 chickens. Hawk attacked another, left it blind, residing in our living room. 3 left in the coop - a Columbian Wyandotte, a Golden-Laced Wyandotte, and the Olive Egger.
Now we aren't getting enough eggs, so decided to get 4 new chicks (split an order with a friend.) By the time we got all the breeds we wanted from what we could find locally: (2 EEs, a bantam silkie, a welsummer, a brown leghorn, a RIR, and an australorp) now we have 11 chickens! And need two new coops, one for the blind one who needs to live separated from everyone else, and one for the new babies, who will go outside in early May, weather permitting.

Did I mention we live on a 1/3 of an acre, on Main Street in the middle of our town - in the historic district? And we have precious few building skills? (Coop 1 was made from PVC pipe, but I hate bending over to walk in and it's hard to clean. Luckily a friend has offered to help us build coops 2 and 3...

Chicken math!

 

[cmoore333]

Here's my chicken math, got coop in September, so got three hens that needed to be rehomed. By December decided we had room for three to four more in our coop, (bought a small coop to use in the spring ha ha ha), so got two hen and rooster that someone was selling, (up to 6)put them in smaller coop to get everyone used to each other for a few weeks got them all settled in the bigger coop , then one of the original hens we got, died(down to 5) (not sure why?? Our very first lost) quickly found someone was selling 4 hens, so we bought them (up to 9)..( stayed a few weeks seperate in the smaller coop until it seemed like everyone was ok with each other and moved everyone into the bigger coop.. Now we are into January found a store that sells chicks all year round, buy six baby chicks.lol(up to 15) got the baby's moved into thier coop. Went one week with empty living room lol bought 8 more baby's ( hubby ordered great big coop, got here last week).(now up to 21) decided to get ducks bought 2 then last week bought 3 more ducks so there's my chicken and duck math..lol

 

[Feathers n Fur]

I'm with both of you -Ok, Here's my math. Just wanted 3 or 4 chickens to have eggs for my family where we knew how they were fed and treated.

• Ordered 4 from hatchery in Feb 2012 to arrive in May since TSC could only sell 6 and i didn't want that many - HA!.
• Heard horror stories of dead chick deliveries so I asked a friend to hold 2 from eggs he was hatching (surprise chicks) in case all 4 chicks didn't survive. Order never arrived, apparently the hatchery ran out so I got a credit.
• I drove down to a local farm and fell in love with the chicks and purchased 5. Hubby built a 40sq ft coop and huge run.
• I went to pick up the two from my friend and of course he had a larger girl (2 wks older than the rest) nobody wanted - I was a sucker and took her totaling 8 if you are keeping up with me.
• Nellie (a black java) turned out to be Ned so I returned him to the farm - leaving me with 7
• Hubby built an addition to the coop since they don't free range (three dogs would eat them and between the bear, cyote, fox, raccons and ferral cats we have here I fear for them) so the Taj Mahal is now just over 100 sqft. The spoiled 7 don't go in 2/3 of it.
• This year I hear about chocolate eggers and went back to the farm and purchased 3 black copper marans but couldn't pass up the barred rock or silver wyandotte. I left with 5! Now we have 12 or as I call them - The dirty dozen -Saying I was done - again - HA!
• Two marans seem to have combs faster than the third leading me to believe they are boys. One silent crows and is 3 wks old. Went back to farm and decided to wait another week to possibly exchange or return depending on what she had. Couldn't leave without getting 2 purebred ameraucanas (white/splash and blue). Total is now 14.
• If one or both marans turns out to be boys I may exchange but I had to promise not to get extra!

We will be adding 120sq ft of run space the first week of April. Now if only the interest on my bank account did this I'd be set

 

[coffeenutdesign]

Well, I have 7 hens and 2 of them are about a year and a half, so instead of getting 7 eggs a day I consistently get only 6...yes, 6 eggs from 7 chickens is not acceptable...so I bought 6 new pullet chicks.

 

[Mrs. K]

My flocks have grown and shrunk through the years, I KNOW that a dozen fits best.

I have a 9 layers and roo right now and getting more eggs than I need.

Have 25 ordered....... enough said.

MrsK

 

[CLOUDNINE]

This if fun

Started last year with my first chicks, got 6 cause TSC only sells 6

Went away on summer vacation and a raccoon (we think) fatally hurt 3, but didn't actually get in the pen- so ended up down to 3.

Still have the 3 (2 hens and 1 roo) but wanted a few more to get more eggs and replace lost ones- got 16 (ordered 15, the minimun order, and got an extra)

Managed to find homes for 4 of them, so now I have 12 more new ones to try and integrate soon

Should have known my math would add up like that!

 

[jahphotogal]

Cloudnine - haha - it's amazing how they multiply. I visited a friend with a dozen not too long ago - I want all the kinds she has (silver spangled hamburg - so pretty!)