Explaining Chicken Math

[topher166]

okay, I got no birds yet.. but I am planning to get 6 ready to lays next month - winters are cold and dont think chicks will survive in the coop with no heat. by cold I mean -10 celsius or colder over night.

also I am planning to get 25 meat birds next spring.
and maybe a few more laying chicks.
if I understand this "chicken math properly" by this time next year, I should be around 400 birds?

 

[BullChick]

That about sums it up!

 

[Ziegenhof]

Love this thread!

I've decided from all the stories of how they "turn into more, with the mysterious chicken math" to build a coop for 150 birds! ... Err now I need to go back and read the square foot per chicken (might of just bit off a big project)... Oh well I know it's gonna keep expanding!

Shelley

 

[BullChick]

The majority says 4 sq ft. A few people say two. Unless they are bantams, please allow four. Outside area is 8 to 10 sq ft/ bird. Okay, now I have given you some actual math. 150 birds need 600 square feet of coop. That would be a 30' X 20' coop. That actually isn't too big ... For a first coop!

 

[maclady]

Chicken math is scary!

 

[Sallysec]

Hmmmm, sneaking them in.... BRILLIANT!!!!!

I keep hearing my hubby mutter under his breath "Found me a city girl and she turned into a country girl..."

I agree with the original poster about sneaking them in...my husband already mutters about me wanting chickens...and also like your husband I think he wonders how the girl from NY is ending up a chicken lover lol

Okay, you people are scaring me! I am a newbie. Started out this April wanting four. Already up to 7, and can't help myself from looking at other breeds and rescues. You know where this is going........

OMG being new makes it worse I think!



Here is my story so far:

My father wanted chickens, he had them growing up, thought it was good for him to have chicken chores and to have a relationship with food. I have been talking about this lately as I have been growing a garden since having my own son . So I tell him I think its illegal (which I believed). One day the local paper has a story about a man keeping chickens and talks about how its legal in my town and also lists some of the other areas town ordinances. So here is the law, we can have chickens but no roosters and they cannot be slaughtered here. So my father brings me the newspaper and tells me its time to get chickens, and how if I don't get them he will. So I cave in, and I start to research it. I figure I will get six chickens. Start my research about their requirements, breeds, needs etc...I have a hard time because I kind of want more than one easter egger. I have a checkout basket going for over a month with different chickens, Ancona, Australorp, RIR, Easter Eggers...was just going to get two RIR and two EE. I feel bad because maybe my husband wants to pick one out, since he will be doing construction on the 'coop' which is an old shed. He likes the Barred Plymouth Rocks, and the Golden Laced Wyandottes ...okay so maybe I will just get one of each RIR and EE and we will have six, but then the Jersey Giants looks awesome...and okay so we have seven, but eight would be an even number so I will get 2 EE and thats it!....Well in planning the coop I figured I would Join BYC since I had been stalking the website now for over a month and reading all these stories. SO I joined this forum, placed my order at My pet chicken...and was content for around a week....then I started wondering if maybe I should have gotten the hamburg or the deleware...and I had chosen all large fowl not thinking bantams would be warm enough in southern NY. I joined the NY forum and started reading about all the people owning silkies and bantams....well they lived north of me so why couldn't I get one. Now this entire time my father is still telling me I should get a dozen, and that It doesn't matter what breed but we need more than my original want of four or six...and even with my order placed he wants roosters. I told him how males are used for packing by some hatcheries and how I wouldnt use those hatcheries and he said to use them because he would eat the males...and now I have a strict policy that anything I name will not be eaten. So last week I text my husband (he works out of town during the week) and ask if I can add more chickens, this time for me (well the original eight are really for my dad right?) and he goes "how many?" I feeling hope full (I mean he didn't say no right off) replied 4?, he laughs and said ok.....(YES!) SO I call up my pet chicken and ask if I can add to my order....I mean I don't want to change it, but will I be charged? they say no if I am adding there is no change fee....(YES!) so now I am researching on what exactly I want to add....but then it hits me...they have an assorted rare breeds option on mpc and if I purchase five they will give me three different breeds minimum....and this way I am getting chicks that might not be sold...and I am saving their lives right? Plus I get some cool variety, and who doesn't love a mystery? Husband said yes to four, so five doesn't make a difference right? I mean what is one more bird....and I know he already measured the coop and bought supplies based on making a run for only eight...but thirteen is a bakers dozen and my father is a baker....and he started it!

 

[Sallysec]

P.S. the shed we converted, its 8width x10length x7height and we are attaching runs of 3 by 8 to two sides I think (one run is built already, debating on the other)....so for those of you experienced in chicken math....I have the room right? In the Spring I am debating building a second coop for a few bantams...just like 2 or 3....to sit up on the upper porch closer to the house maybe....we shall see

 

[BullChick]

You are hysterical! "Daddy did it!"
You better order more chicks while DH is at work, and put them in without a word. You have room for more. You are going to need more room in the runs. By four months, you will see for yourself. Unless you keep the number down. I don't recommend torturing yourself like that, though. Build bigger runs. And welcome to Chickaholic Anonymous!!

 

[Ziegenhof]

The majority says 4 sq ft. A few people say two. Unless they are bantams, please allow four. Outside area is 8 to 10 sq ft/ bird. Okay, now I have given you some actual math. 150 birds need 600 square feet of coop. That would be a 30' X 20' coop. That actually isn't too big ... For a first coop!

I always thought the vertical space was included in the actual space?

When I was young and really raising a lot of chickens, incubators going all the time, and so on.. My birds had about 256 sq feet and using the vertical area like crazy with all sorts of roosts. I usually ran about 70 birds and they had a very large yard (like around a 1/4 acre). I never had a problem back then with pecking (except on the meat breeds when raising them in the brooder) nor any health problems.

Now I have a smaller coop which is about 120 sq feet. I only have 12 hens and they have a 30x60 pen, plus a lot of free range time on 10 acres (of course they never go that far from their home).. I just leave them lock in pen while they are laying during the early part of day, then open the door and still wind up playing "find the eggs"... Now these gals peck each other (and I'm starting to think it was their organic food) and are very aggressive about their pen with anything that comes close to it. I'm thinking the Wyndottes are a little more aggressive then what I was use to with RIR's and Barred Rocks in the past.

Part of the reason I was planning on expanding and building a bigger coop, but 20x30 is not in the works! I was thinking more like 12x12x8 and use that vertical space like crazy! Lots of roosts with nesting boxes on the floor.

 

[chickenmomma16]

Oh dear... I'm just starting my chicken math project. I started out agreeing to take some of my aunts chickens when she moved. I thought 6-10 was a good number. I get there and with teary eyes my aunt who loves her hens dearly asked "are you sure that's all you want?". How could you resist! I said fill the boxes I have with however many hens will fit, the coop and run are big enough. I came home with 16 birds and later I decided to add a roo that a fella Byc member gave me. Now knowing BYC members... (such enablers) I told her I had a broody hen and wanted to eventually hatch chicks. She gave me a dozed EE hatching eggs. Thank goodness only 5 hatched. So 2 birds had to go in the crock pot because of an attitude so my current bird count is 19. Not that bad for only 4 months owning chickens.

Next springs plans are to hatch more chicks from my laying flock and raise a few batches of meaties.

What's my future chicken math looking like?