Explaining Chicken Math

[flyladyrocks]

flyladyrocks, potagergirl, and sepaditty1: i think that free ones count as minus 1 each. this is because you didn't deliberately get them, they were foisted upon you, so you don't have to add them to the number of chickens you have. but they're there, so you have to acknowledge them somehow. subtracting 1 for each freebee from the total is therefore only logical.

Yes, totally makes sense. Only problem is they would still sought out by me since they were advertised on Craigslist. So maybe subtracting 1 for every 2 free ones I go seek out. Now if I happen to find any those are definitely -1. Seriously it is not like I can just leave a poor abandoned chick! How crazy is it that I actually hope I find ones wandering around.

I think Chicken Math has infected my husband. This weekend he told me he wants a flock of 50. I said HOW MANY? He said 50 AGAIN! I think I will get him to sign in blood, after all he is sick this weekend, so no delirium excuses if he signs in his own blood right?

Now in Chicken math, how many is 50? I can just see my neighbor's face. Unfortunately the neighbor who complains about EVERYTHING and EVERYONE in the neighborhood lives next door. She actually has a rep with the city for complaining. But the good news is there is absolutely NO flock size regulation even thought I live in the middle of a pretty large city and we have a crazy big lot for the middle of the city (more than one large lot actually). Now a noisy rooster would be considered nuisance but as long as I take care of the Chickens, no problem! Oh she will even be happier when the neighbors on the other side get Chickens too!

 

[BLT79]

I don't want to be long winded on here, but I finally got an A in math, chicken math! Last June we got 2 chicks from a friend who had plenty of chickens and hen hatched these 2. Wanted just 2 more a week or two later. Went to local farm and came home with 3 more chickens and 2 ducks! Over the long winter we decided on a "science experiment" since we were noticing fertile eggs. Into the incubator goes 8 eggs. 1 hatches, boy. Not even sure why, but 4 weeks later off to feed store for 6 chicks. I think because we wanted ladies for new roo. Friend calls, 6 chicks hatched at her daycare. She only wanted 2. So two weeks ago I was freely given 4 chicks. Last week 2 of my hens went broody. If any hatch I am only keeping 2! Haha! So we can watch broody process and watch hens be mommies, and we can't give away all their babies after all that work! Oh yea, both duck were male, 1 got taken over winter so now we "need" 2 females! Now I need more coops, and brooding box, and duck coop with pond, dh's idea! Haha!

 

[NEKansasgal]

I love this thread...too funny!!!

My story starts with my husband...he has wanted chickens since before we got married. We both grew up with backyard chickens, but he definitely wanted them more then I did. We lived in town for the first 14 years of our marriage and were unable to have a flock.

We finally moved to the country, and DH immediately started talking about chickens. We went to farm store to get some supplies for fence...it just happened to be "Chick Day." We left with 9EE, because there were only 9. My DH could not have an odd number of chicks, so off to farm store in next county. We came home with 10 RSL, and 14 straight run bantams - because they were so cute!

Got the coop built and went to feed store to get feed, and it was another "Chick Day." We talked about getting a turkey, or two, to raise for Thanksgiving. They had 3 heritage breeds- royal palm, black Spanish, and Narragansett- so naturally we got 2 of each breed!

While at feed store, DH remembered we still have odd number of chickens...so we brought home 4 polish, 2 silver laced Wyandottes, and 6 barred rocks. We still are at an odd number of chickens!

A week later DH goes to feed store and came home with 10 more barred rocks! I had to put my foot down and say NO MORE!! And we still have odd number of chickens!

I love them!! DH is happy...he sits and watches them free range for hours. As the saying goes...happy husband, happy life!! (Or something like that!)

 

[sepaditty1]

I love it! He must truly want a huge flock. He can't keep "forgetting" that you have to BUY an uneven number to end up with an EVEN number. He's truly one of us. Hope you like eggs!!!!

 

[Northie]

DH has caught on to chicken math,
"So..... You ordered 10, 6 hatched so we came home with 16 to replace the 4 that didn't hatch 3 died and there are 4 roosters for the freeze and you want to keep the other roosters so we're ordering 10 more female chicks????

I smiled sweetly and gave him a kiss
" yes sweetheart and that's called 'chicken math' "

He sighed...

 

[missnu01]

i am laughing so hard! im reading these posts to my H n he is telling me were all crazy. i told him2wks ago i wanted chickens n he said k but no mre than 6. i said ummm K. a wk later we r at Rural King n before we know it theres 6 RIR N 6 Quineas in the cart. Three days later im there getting hardware cloth n the ISAs r callinf my name so i talk the sales lady into letting me have just 3. (6 is the min. but she remembered me from Fri.) so now i have 15 chicks!! n instead of a nice small coop we r looking at 8×12 s!! lol oh n when we were at the check out he turns to me n says NO MORE n of course i say k. he nos me n says really Lynn NO MORE HAHAHA!!!! snicker!!

no more" as in, "no more asking him first" or as in, "no more than twenty or sixty... this year "?

I always take a no to mean don't ask first...and while that might be wrong there are worst things I could not tell him about...lol

 

[piper123]

Chicken Math is a scary thing...

Let's see...At first we only wanted four laying hens, but at TSC they had five RIR chicks left, so we couldn't leave the last one! One was eaten by a raccoon and so we were down to four. Then we saw a silkie chicken and decided we wanted a few of those, so we ended up getting three silkie chicks and a frizzle because she was so adorable! Then, as a "replacement" chicken for the one we lost, we got one Ameracuana. Now we are going to expand our coop so the chicken math can continue with some barred rocks!

 

[NEKansasgal]

Chicken Math is a scary thing...

Let's see...At first we only wanted four laying hens, but at TSC they had five RIR chicks left, so we couldn't leave the last one! One was eaten by a raccoon and so we were down to four. Then we saw a silkie chicken and decided we wanted a few of those, so we ended up getting three silkie chicks and a frizzle because she was so adorable! Then, as a "replacement" chicken for the one we lost, we got one Ameracuana. Now we are going to expand our coop so the chicken math can continue with some barred rocks!

That is how it all begins...next thing you know you'll be building a second coop! Just don't look at the hatchery catalogs...they are dangerous territory!

 

[Bethel3330]

I can attest to the fact that getting the spouse on board is all you need! We were planning how to house our meat birds later and when I joked that they only needed the coop for a couple months he said ok when I told him we may as well put more birds in it for the rest of the year. Haha! He wanted to know what else we were going to get since we only have 7 in a coop that will easily house 12. I told him be patient, we'll be hatching out babies eventually ;-) in reality, I'm going to have a coop dedicated likely to lavender Orpington eventually, so that makes three planned so far...

 

[piper123]

Haha! I know we have a chicken breeder near us that we are constantly visiting. We are about to build another coop to hold the four silkie chicks we just bought