Hello! I never considered math one of my strong points, but I seem to be doing fantastically with chicken math. I've already been a bit addicted to chickens for several years (just without actually having the chickens). We (sort of) agreed on starting with about 8 hens and a rooster.
We set 18 shipped eggs in the incubator 19 days ago, thinking that we could hope for a 50% hatch rate. Only 5 have made it into lockdown. Not enough, especially considering they won't all be hens.
Ordered more eggs to be delivered later this week. Considering we'll have around a 33% hatch rate if the outcome is similar, we need MORE eggs than we tried last time. So I ordered 12 each of the 3 breeds we tried the first time. But then, I was bored and browsing here and
ebay and found some really interesting breeds...now about 80 eggs are going to be set later in the week.
But it is ok! I only expect 33% to hatch and that is around 26 chicks, but about 50% (or more) will be male, so that's only 13 chicks, plus a couple from the first hatch and that is close enough to 8 hens, right?
Friends/family/coworkers who know that we're hatching chickens have already begun to mention getting eggs from us when they start laying. Our immediate family alone goes through about 2 dozen + eggs a week, plus if we're supplying several family members, friends and coworkers with eggs, we'll need more than 8 hens anyway. It all makes perfect sense to me. But I have a feeling that my husband (who is very good at real math) may be a bit confused by chicken math. I DID say we had to try to hatch more eggs next time because of the low amount that developed this time...I just didn't happen to mention how many more.
I hope the Guinea will scare it away with all their yelling when it shows up.
