HELP!!! I'm a victim of CHICKEN MATH!!!!!

[Nsampsel]

OK...the 1st week of March this year my 5 yr old & I went into TSC for Kitty food & litter...until my son heard the babies. We walked out an hr later with 2 Pekin ducks, 1 white Silkie, 1 Silver Duckwing OEGB pullet, 1 Silver Seabright & what appeared to be a d'Uccle or d'Anver (this one didn't make it).

Within a week as we returned to TSC for chick supplies we added 2 Red Stars, 2 Tetra Tints, 1 Mille Fleur d'Uccle pullet, another OEGB (didn't make it) and 2 Mallards.

2 weeks later, on another trip for chick supplies we added 6 more Tetra Tints. A week later, a Columbian Rock, a Black Star pullet, 2 Golden Seabrights, a Mille Fleur d'Uccle cockrel (YAY!!! A pair!!!), and a tiny white bantum no one could identify. (A friend bought the 2 Pekins around this time so we dropped down to only 2 ducks.)

Then I got on craigslist...from a farm over an hour & a half's drive away I got 1 Mixed Banty Roo (looks like BCM, but a BANTUM BCM???), 2 OEGB? Mix hens already laying, 1 Golden Seabright mix cockrel, 1 Mille Fleur OEGB Mix Roo, 1 Barred Rock, & 1 Speckled Sussex.

2 days later, another craigslist ad led me an hour & a half in the OPPOSITE direction to get 1 Crested Kahki Campbell, 1 B&W Magpie, 1 Black Runner, 1 Blue Swedish, 1 Barred Cochin pullet, 1 Welsumer pullet, 1 EE pullet, 1 buff Frizzled bantum, 1 porcelain "something" bantum, 1 blue "something" bantum, 1 buff "something" bantum, & 1 Crele? OEG bantum.

Come May 1st we got 1 more Barred Rock, 2 white Leghorns, 2 Brown Leghorns & 2 RIR's...all pullets.

May 4th I ordered my 1st incubator (6 egg capacity), and 6 eggs to go in it on the 5th (Rosies-a BYC Member's project bird, & some barnyard mixes). In the wee hours of May 8th I ordered a bigger bator just after winning an e-bay auction for 6+ assorted silkie eggs very late on the 7th. After that I HAD to fill both bators to capacity!!!

In the past 36 hours I have won e-bay auctions for 12+Lav Orps, 12+ Lemon Cuckoo Orps, a special order from an e-bayer of 2 Coronation Sussex, 2 Random colored Orps & 2 Black East Indie Ducks. A mixed order of 12+ heavy in BCM, BLCM, silkies and EE's all in the same pens. from a BYCer. Also, from my BYC friends, 6 Call Duck eggs in assorted colors.

I had to put 1 e-bay special order & 1 BYC special order on the back burner until I get space in my bators when I begin hatching on the 30th of the 6 banty eggs from my own flock that went into the tiny bator as soon as it got here today. I'm awaiting the delivery of silkie eggs & my big bator tomorrow followed over the next week & a half by all the rest of the eggs I ordered. My bator is OVERFLOWING!!!

I need HELP!!! Anyone wanna buy a few (dozen) chickens????

 

[leadwolf1]

Lock up your credit card and stay off of ebay!!! What are you going to do with all those birds? Wow! If only there was a chickens anonymous meeting....

 

[leadwolf1]

Do you realize that's a possible 102 birds????? That's not counting the special orders....oh my, you have it bad!!!

 

[Nsampsel]

Do you realize that's a possible 102 birds????? That's not counting the special orders....oh my, you have it bad!!!

Ummmm...102??? Dang, now I got Dalmations too...LOL

BTW, you forgot the +'s in there were most of these orders come with extra eggs!!!! Minimum of 5 1/2 dozen eggs, 8 & 6 on reserve for next month...If everything hatches (which is extremely doubtful considering this is my 1st attempt at hatching, staggered hatch dates, ducks in the mix, new bators...) just with what I already have & what is ordered there will be 80+ new babies and the 44 I already have for a total of 124 (did I mention I live in town???)

Note to self: Put some of these 1/2 grown chicks on craigslist tonight/tomorrow & recoup some of the money!!! (No credit cards involved, this was all straight outta my checking acct.)

Maybe I have a bit of OCD I didn't know about???

 

[leadwolf1]

Ouch! I realize that all won't hatch but have you thought about where you are gonna keep them all????? I live in the middle of Amish farm country and with 40 birds, I'm beginning to worry I wouldn't be having a problem at all but my birds ended up infected by Marek's from a source that I still haven't figured out. So, the only way for me to get rid of some is to kill them...I just can't bring myself to do that...even to all the roos I have I've lost 27 chickens since September due to Marek's...the thought of killing a healthy bird just about does me in.

 

[Nsampsel]

I have several neighbors waiting for eggs & meat both...but I only have 2 laying so far...& 15 more that should start in the next 6-8 weeks...& I haven't even counted the younger ones. I plan on keeping several breeder pairs of the more rare breeds if I can & of course enuf layer hens to stock the neighbor hood with eggs...gotta keep the silkies...and blue/green/olive/chocolate eggers just for variety. Hopefully I can cut everything back down to 30-40 birds before winter, even if it means I make my boyfriend pluck a few for me for dinner (He grew up running around his grandma's farm & the killing doesn't bother him a bit. To him it's not a pet, it's FOOD!!!) I also have several neighbors who grew up on farms who would love some fresh chicken & would do their own butchering.

 

[what did I do]

If it makes you feel any better, my husband just said, "what are you going to do with all of those chicks" - @36 have hatched in the last day. I don't know. Some of them are sold but it is so hard to give them up. You wouldn't give up one of your kids, would you?