Chicken math

[TaraBellaBirds]

Three years in and my numbers are up and down!
As of this moment, I have 13 layers, 2 full grown capons, 6 smaller capons, 16, 9 week old EE's, 13 1 week olds under 2 broody's, 5 more 4 week old EE's, 2 EE hens, 1 Lav Am hen and a Lav Am roo (in breeder pen)........plus I just drove to pick up 5 Paul Smith Lav Ams....so however many that is is how many I have at this very moment.........

Oh and in July I have 25 more to come from Sandhill Preservation!

 

[thegoodwinshens]

We went in for 4 and we now have 7

 

[nickdlny]

Alright--

So I shared my story earlier in the thread--aiming for 10 or 12 and ended up with 20. Admittedly, part of over-shooting our goal was to account for sickness, chick fatality, and the mysterious pullet rooster that happens in 5-10% of pullet. I don't remember the exact numbers, but we always planned to buy 1 or 2 more of each breed than we needed just to make sure that we kept the breed in our flock even if some chickens didn't make it.

We ended up with 20 birds expecting some of them to not make it to healthy egg-laying hen-hood (we bought 21 but in the middle of our buying my young daughter bumped one of the heat-lamps and it landed squarely on a less-than-a-week old chick, we still ended up with 20 in our flock).

Here's the part that frustrating in our situation, almost impossible to shrug off with a laugh; of our 20 pullets, all of them are still very healthy and free-ranging at 7-9 weeks old and not a single one looks like a rooster. I got bit by the chicken math buying the chickens and then again when nothing I accounted for actually happenned--we're dealing with 20 healthy young hens.

Note to self--make sure the coop is actually big enough to accommodate all the birds you pick up. My coop is 8' by 8' and the roof slopes from 9' on one end to 5' on the other; there's plenty of room to put roosts in. Here's my question: can you please share your opinion on whether the coop is big enough to handle that many birds or not? I'm don't have a problem keeping that many birds if I can safely and humanely tend to them; and I'm willing to shrink my flock if necessary.

 

[SimplyLogan]

Alright--

So I shared my story earlier in the thread--aiming for 10 or 12 and ended up with 20. Admittedly, part of over-shooting our goal was to account for sickness, chick fatality, and the mysterious pullet rooster that happens in 5-10% of pullet. I don't remember the exact numbers, but we always planned to buy 1 or 2 more of each breed than we needed just to make sure that we kept the breed in our flock even if some chickens didn't make it.

We ended up with 20 birds expecting some of them to not make it to healthy egg-laying hen-hood (we bought 21 but in the middle of our buying my young daughter bumped one of the heat-lamps and it landed squarely on a less-than-a-week old chick, we still ended up with 20 in our flock).

Here's the part that frustrating in our situation, almost impossible to shrug off with a laugh; of our 20 pullets, all of them are still very healthy and free-ranging at 7-9 weeks old and not a single one looks like a rooster. I got bit by the chicken math buying the chickens and then again when nothing I accounted for actually happenned--we're dealing with 20 healthy young hens.

Note to self--make sure the coop is actually big enough to accommodate all the birds you pick up. My coop is 8' by 8' and the roof slopes from 9' on one end to 5' on the other; there's plenty of room to put roosts in. Here's my question: can you please share your opinion on whether the coop is big enough to handle that many birds or not? I'm don't have a problem keeping that many birds if I can safely and humanely tend to them; and I'm willing to shrink my flock if necessary.

8x8 (not counting the run, but coop space) is roughly 16 chickens if you go by the suggested sf per chicken. Not everyone gives that much space. So you could easily pull off 20 chickens. You just need to make sure they have nice run space. I had started out with a coop/run combo for about 11 birds. when I upped my numbers I ended up closing in the run area and making a run around it to accommodate more birds.
I was trying to find you a pic of mine, but right now this is all I could find, We were still building it. the inside wood part with boxes was originally the enclosed part and the screened in part was the run. After up sizing, we enclosed in all the screen area to make a larger coop. now the run is around the coop.

 

[Cottage Chicks]

We built a 9X9 foot coop last spring with about a 600 square foot run. Now this spring we're going to fence in almost 1/2 an acre and add another coop. Decided I needed a separate grow out for the young ones. So when you expand that porch put up a wall so you can separate as needed. LOL

That's a great idea so the older and younger girls can be separated!

 

[curious chickee]

Just got two more, they had two BA sexed pullets at the feed store, so added them to my Six 1 week old chicks, now that is only 32 chicks all 10 weeks and under. But of course 12 are cockerels so those don't count.

3 EE pullets
2 buff wyadonette pullets
2 new hampshires pullets
4 RIR pullets
1 BR pullet (future sex links)
6 golden sex links pullets
2 BA pullets

8 BR cockerels (dinner)
3 EE cockerels (1 roo & 2 dinner)
1 buff cochin cockerel (roo)

 

[n3kms]

Just got two more, they had two BA sexed pullets at the feed store, so added them to my Six 1 week old chicks, now that is only 32 chicks all 10 weeks and under. But of course 12 are cockerels so those don't count.

3 EE pullets
2 buff wyadonette pullets
2 new hampshires pullets
4 RIR pullets
1 BR pullet (future sex links)
6 golden sex links pullets
2 BA pullets

8 BR cockerels (dinner)
3 EE cockerels (1 roo & 2 dinner)
1 buff cochin cockerel (roo)

Looks like a nice colorful variety.
Well, my cream legbar broody just hatched me some black Java babies and the next day her sister goes broody. I have no problem with that. Hubby says "break her". I let him know it's not necessarily that easy and kind of mean. I don't really think it's so mean but I'm a labor and delivery nurse and love this kind of stuff. He has a hard time arguing with motherhood. Now I just need to figure out what kind of babies I want. Anna's sister is not laying due to new babies. I can pick out Anna's eggs easily because they are a pretty color but have a rough, sand paper texture. Not normal and don't want to perpetuate that. I really think I need another breed. Got BRs, BLRW, CCL, Bl Javas(chicks only). My only mature roo is a cream legbar. I also have some barm yard mix. I really don't want to get shipped eggs again. Guess I'll look on Craig's list. I love chicken math, especially with broodies.

 

[n3kms]

L

Looks like a nice colorful variety.
Well, my cream legbar broody just hatched me some black Java babies and the next day her sister goes broody. I have no problem with that. Hubby says "break her". I let him know it's not necessarily that easy and kind of mean. I don't really think it's so mean but I'm a labor and delivery nurse and love this kind of stuff. He has a hard time arguing with motherhood. Now I just need to figure out what kind of babies I want. Anna's sister is not laying due to new babies. I can pick out Anna's eggs easily because they are a pretty color but have a rough, sand paper texture. Not normal and don't want to perpetuate that. I really think I need another breed. Got BRs, BLRW, CCL, Bl Javas(chicks only). My only mature roo is a cream legbar. I also have some barm yard mix. I really don't want to get shipped eggs again. Guess I'll look on Craig's list. I love chicken math, especially with broodies.

Looks like I am going to get silkie eggs. Never used to think I wanted silkies but they have grown on me and my daughter really wants some.

 

[blkjak]

And silkies make great broodys.

 

[n3kms]

And silkies make great broodys.

Yes, I realize that. It's not going to help my chicken math problem. Or maybe not help my husband's chicken math problem. I love chicken math.