Explaining Chicken Math

[moonlitechick]

Oh... NO!!!! I have 35 mouths to feed and I think I have not one chicken..... My kids have named everything that is old enough to distinguish from the others.

 

[Talbott Poultry]

Oh... NO!!!! I have 35 mouths to feed and I think I have not one chicken..... My kids have named everything that is old enough to distinguish from the others.

Sounds like you need to get some new girls. After all, everyone should have chickens.

 

[Mellisa]

Chickens to Goats does seem like a natural progression.....

....I've been a victim of Chicken Math for decades and am now falling into Goat Math.

DH adopted an orphan Boer doe. As much fun as she has playing with our Catahoula, she needed a friend. So he found two fainting goat weathers. But they turned out to be jerks who are mean to her. So he found a buck.
Now Bordeaux and Buck Rogers are pals.
But then he found two Kinder does who needed to be re-homed due to a job change for their owners.

We now have 6 goats with 3 being does and one being an intact buck. I fully expect our Goat Math to become as much of a problem and joy as our Chicken Math is.

We have 25 broilers (+1) and 5 pullets being delivered to the post office tomorrow morning

 

[BullChick]

I have said in the past, I wanted 3 pygmy goats. No chickens. I went to TSC for garden fencing. Ohhhhhh crap! Six chicks came home with me. Discovered that five were roos. Needed more hens. Went to a swap, got two hens. One has a cross beak, might not lay. The other my neighbors are convinced is a roo. Need more hens. Not to mention, DH's granny (lives with us) kept complaining that we weren't going to get enough eggs. I was about to order 15 (or twenty!) chicks next week, but HAPPENED to find an ad for 2-year-old hens. Bought four.
I am up to six boys, six girls. Four roos are going to freezer camp, so they don't count. i have 8 chickens. Cross beak (Cadburry) is not guaranteed to live long, so she doesn't count. I have seven chickens. One roo is a breeder with a name, and another girl is named as well. I have five chickens.
I swore I would wait until 2014 to get any more peeps, but ... Yeah, that isn't happening!

 

[Mellisa]

Sounds like you need to get some new girls. After all, everyone should have chickens.

And it's not like she needs to get a LOT of chickens. Maybe one or two. That should do it!

 

[azahn]

lol

 

[moonlitechick]

Sounds like you need to get some new girls. After all, everyone should have chickens.

Guess its time to go to the local small animal swap or the poultry auction.

I love having new excuses to go!

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Your "chicken math" is awesome! And it sounds just like me. Even though I know I'm buying 25 birds from MMM:
I need some Easter Eggers. Better get 12 so that the proportion of green/blue to white/brown will be right in the carton (we sell eggs)
My DH loves Buttercups and a fox got ours, better get 3 of those
OOOHH! Silver Penciled Rocks! Gotta have some! What, straight run? Better get 6 so that I've got a decent chance of getting at least 2-3 hens
I don't have any buff colored chickens. Love Rocks, better put some Buff Rocks in there. My Dad's girlfriend wants some, so I'll brood some out for her, too. Better get 12.
I want to start hatching some eggs under a broody, need a broody breed. Better add 3 dark Cornish.
Oh, look, Partridge Rocks! Add 3 of these!
and don't forget that 1 free rare chick...

And that's how my 25 chicks from MMM turned into 40. Then MMM sent me a free extra Buff Rock and and two free extra EEs (all pullets, WOOT) so I actually got 43.

THEN...

There were some month-old Tetra Tints on super sale at TSC. Gotta pick those up--pullets that I didn't have to feed for a month, AND they are cheap? SCORE

THEN...
My dad and his girlfriend gave my kids 4 chicks for Easter...

THEN...
Someone who knows we have chickens gave us 6 ASA Browns that he got just so his kids could play with chicks, doesn't actually want hens

THEN....
A teacher at the local Jewish Day School bought hatching eggs from us and couldnt' place the chicks. 13 came back to us.

THEN...
I decided that I really dislike my current White Leghorns because they aren't laying well and when they do, they lay medium-sized pointy eggs. They're going on Craigslist, but I need some white egg layers, so I buy 6 16-week old pullets.

SO, the grand total of chickens that I bought this year (in addition to the ones already in the hen house) is... ba ba ba bum...

***80*********

Remember, I was "just getting 25..."

Chicken math is hard.

 

[deedee1]

OMG

I am just getting started into the chicken thing . . .I am already such an addict!!!!

I have 7 laying hens (mixed) 4- 5 week old polish 2-5 week old Welsummer 2- 5 week old cuckoo marans. . .then 2 night ago we drove an hour to get 5-11 week old Appenseller Spitzenhauben (pure breed). I have also got a buy lined up from a farmer for some more hens!!! Keep reading and looking finding more that I just feel I have to have. I are really wanting to find someone close with some Buff Brahma's for sale. . .Seen them at a county 4H chicken show. . .Feel in love again!!!!!

 

[deedee1]

OH and yes I almost forgot my four pearl Keets that are 6 week old. . . . .truly feel I need more these!!!!