Chicken math

[pioneerchick816]

I only added ONE to my order coming in April! I'm so proud of myself!!

Welllllll...and 6 for my "neighbor"

I'm going to be brooding them for her (so maybe that will keep me from adding any more to mine) LOL

 

[Peeps61]

I've got a Buff Brahma hen that does the same thing. She loves to talk to me! I don't see her doing it with anyone else, and she'll follow me around when I'm out with the chickens.

 

[Spartan22]

Awe!  Come on Spartan!  You KNOW you want some of those Polish chicks!  No wonder they all sold out.  I'd have bought a few on the spot just because.  I've got 21 or so ordered from the feed store in town and should get my first batch this weekend!

I bribed the store,

they are saving me couple of White Crested Black Polish, couple of Salmon Faverolle and maybe California Whites and ............

 

[haunani]

Yeah, I don't even have chickens yet and chicken math has already hit.

I wanted 3.

Then 4.

Then I ordered 6.

Which became 7 with the Meyer Meal Maker.

And I just added 2 more to make it 9.

And hubby wants white eggs so we're going to getting a few more next year, too.

 

[grandmaduck]

I raised 6 chicks every spring as a child til about 6 weeks when they all turned into mean roosters--every year roosters!! It has been 50 years since those days and the memories of a school classmate telling me how wonderful my chickens were for Sunday dinner !! I thought my dad took them to a farm to live not to be dinner. I decided this year I would get 6 chicks for my grandsons ( 9 and 4) to raise while living at my house for the next few months. When they move, they will only be a mile away and will still be around the chickens staying with me.

Things have really changed over the years. As a kid, I used a cardboard box and they were fed cheap oatmeal in the lid of a mayo jar. If my parents fed them anything else, I never knew about it. Now we buy a coop, medicated chick feed, probiotics and electrolytes, fancy feeders and waterers, grit etc.

Well, here is my chicken math. We went to TSC to get the minimum 6 chicks--4 Austrolorp
pullets and 2 mystery chicks who the lady thought were pullets also. The mystery chicks after I researched turned out to be Easter Eggers which I really wanted for the shock of colorful eggs for the boys. I was looking also for docile hens. Within a few days, we went to another TSC and picked up 6 ISA browns. I really wanted 1 of each of 6 varieties so the boys could name them and watch each one change over those first weeks. Yesterday, we went to a hatchery and picked up 2 Novogens which are red. They threw in an extra so my initial coop which holds 6-8 is going to be too small because in less than a week, I now have 15 chicks !! I had to inform the boys that "if it crows, it goes" out of respect for neighbors and I also knew we might lose some. I may have to eat my words as the friendliest of all our babies are the two mystery chicks which we are not sure about. They actually fall asleep in the boys hands !! I don't think I will be able to separate them.
Thanks for all the information I have received by reading your posts here. I do have a question -- what do you do at vacation time? Hire a chicken sitter?

 

[LadyVictorian]

My neighbor has chickens and is happy with coming over if I go away and feeding them, watering them, and putting them in at night. I guess it depends if you have anyone near bye who is willing to come do the basics for them and maybe have a little fee you can pay. Maybe a neighborhood kid who loves animals? I do the same for her chickens and animals when she is away. We trade on and off and out payment is that the other will look after our critters for free as well.

 

[grandmaduck]

I think I am the only person with animals in our neighborhood. I have three teens around me so will ask them if they want to make some extra bucks. We also have 3 small dogs but take them with us on vacation--we camp so that they can go along.

Forgot to ask--with this many chicks and as chilly as it still is at night, what sort of brooder does everyone use inside the house. These chicks have grown so much in their first week and are trying to fly a little. This evening I found one on top of the waterer already--it is a rather tall bottle so a screen was put on top. I really don't want to open the door of the laundry room and find these kids behind the washer and dryer etc.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

I do have a question -- what do you do at vacation time? Hire a chicken sitter?

I used to have my neighbor, who also has chickens, come and take care of them while I was gone. Since I started back to work I expanded my run and finished reinforcing everything. When I am home, the chickens sleep in the larger coop and the guineas in the smaller. I close the chicken coop but leave the guinea coop open so they come out at day break and have breakfast. I go out and I let them out into the yard, close up the run again, and let the chickens out. The chickens stay in the run until my husband gets home around 3 and then they get to free range as well. He only works Monday through Thursday so everyone free ranges all day Friday through Sunday.

Now that the run is bigger, and the fact that my chicken neighbor tends to have chickens randomly drop dead now and again, I don't have her come anywhere near my chickens anymore (not that I have blatantly told her any of my worries about her being a potential risk to my biosecurity). We went out of town for Presidents day weekend, just for two nights, and I had the guineas stay out and roost in the trees. I left the coop doors open for the chickens to let themselves in and out. Eventually I am going to make automatic coop doors for peace of mind. The downside to having the guineas stay out, other than the danger, is that then it takes a couple nights to get them to start cooping up again. It usually takes an owl attack to remind them why I coop them up to begin with (case in point, I lost two to an owl two nights after we returned - then they started going back inside at night). When/if we go out of town longer, I will need to figure something else out. The other thing that can be problematic is if we decide halfway through the day, when the chickens are already out, that we want to go to dinner or something that night. In winter it's dark by 4:30 so we can just go after that, but in summer usually it means an early dinner so we can be dark by eight or so. Lately we have not had any predators coming around, but its generally just a matter of time until a fox wanders around.

 

[ChickAsThieves]

Forgot to ask--with this many chicks and as chilly as it still is at night, what sort of brooder does everyone use inside the house.

I usually use a metal trough type of thing that we bought at Tractor Supply. It's pretty tall so they can't fly out when they're small. As they get bigger we have a cover that my boyfriend built that fits over it. The cover is mostly hardware cloth, but has wooden sides and ends so there's no chance of anyone get scratched. I can take a picture of it tonight when I get home if you'd like to see it.

When we're not using the trough as a brooder it's in the storage part of our chicken coop and we put the bags of feed and scratch in it because it's not easy for small rodents to get in and out of.
Here's a pic of the one we use:

 

[SunHwaKwon]

I usually use a metal trough type of thing that we bought at Tractor Supply. It's pretty tall so they can't fly out when they're small. As they get bigger we have a cover that my boyfriend built that fits over it. The cover is mostly hardware cloth, but has wooden sides and ends so there's no chance of anyone get scratched. I can take a picture of it tonight when I get home if you'd like to see it.

When we're not using the trough as a brooder it's in the storage part of our chicken coop and we put the bags of feed and scratch in it because it's not easy for small rodents to get in and out of.
Here's a pic of the one we use:

That's a smart idea. I like brooders that have an off season purpose.