Do you count your chickens before bed?

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I head count every night and basically every time I go to look at them during the day I'll add them up quickly too. Easy enough because I only have 9 in my main flock, 6 chicks and a banty sitting on 3 eggs.

I do like to know they're all accounted for. Last night I was missing one adult hen. My 11 yr old son and i couldn't find her anywhere. Finally realised my 3 yr old son had been walking around with her tucked under his arm earlier that day and i told him to put her back in the coop. I thought like a mischievous 3 yr old and bingo - found her locked up in the under construction coop in the nearly pitch black. It hasn't got any feeders or drinkers in it yet, so I was very glad I found her.

So for me head counts are essential.
 
I've never had more than 30 at a time and it was hard to do an accurate head count. Sometimes it's a little too dark to see them well enough. They like to crowd together and slide underneath each other. Sometimes they're moving around and I lose count. It's easier for me to account for everyone by checking off how many I have of a breed or color--8 of this 4 of that, etc. If I had very many more than that, I'd probably just check for the majority and call it a night.
 
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I also always count in the evening. We have 3 coops, a broody coop, and as of now 3 small pens for my two baby ducklings, my two lavender Silkies and my two Ayam Cemanis. Then we have 4 adult Welsh Harlequin ducks that make their own beds in my yard every night that also get accounted for. Coop 1 has 8 birds presently. One hen from there, with 3 just hatched chicks is in our broody coop. Coop 2 is our 5 resident Silkie coop, but they don't free range like those in Coops 1 & 3. But I still stop in every night to say goodnight to them.🙂 Coop 3 houses 19 chickens, but we have given one hen a separate sleeping quarters, bc she was eating eggs. She sleeps in her own pen every night, but free ranges with her flock daily. So I've a very manageable amount of chickens (& ducks, too) at present, all whom I have tagged wuth leg bands and named. Each coop has a laminated list of each bird, with their leg band color & number, their breed and their names atrached inside each coop. I have often referred to it if I'm missing a chicken in Coop 3. Easier to run down my list for me to figure out who isn't there. I'm not certain how many would be too many to count, but seems like if it were over 100, it would be a real chore.
 
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E
Dottie the Chicken said:
How many of you count your chickens when you put them up at night? How many chickens would it take for you to give up counting?
Click to expand...
Dottie the Chicken said:
How many of you count your chickens when you put them up at night? How many chickens would it take for you to give up counting?
Click to expand...
I only have 4 and always make sure all four are in the coop before I lock them up. Makes sense no matter how many chickens you have. If you have too many to count you might have too many! LOL
 
My flock fee range all day and every night I count them before I lock them in their coop. I have done this when I had 5 and I do it still when I have 33. I will do it as long as I am responsible for their lives. And if one is missing I can tell you which one it is since they all have names. (Granted I have a variety of breeds and many have hatched in that same coop.)
 

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