Help With Chicken Math!!!!!!

[cluck-cluck]

Oh my gosh, when my husband said we should get some chickens a month and a half ago (I've been wanting them for years), he REALLY didn't know what kind of Pandora's box he'd opened! e

 

[snooptwomey]

LOL, for me it ended up having 2 red sex link hens "just for eggs" and before I knew it. . . . within around 9 months I had 18 chickens. 4 roosters and 14 hens. So for me, my chicken math equates to 6 times what I was planning on haha

 

[snooptwomey]

Oh yeah, and some quail lol

 

[chickenlover89]

thank you so much everybody! I'm thinking that i am going to build a coop for ten then use my current coop as a bantam coop for eight.

 

[chickenlover89]

so my dad doesn't understand chicken math, and refuses to get anymore chickens, how should i try to convince him to get more (we'd need a 2nd coop and the guy who builds our coops is expensive, so he doesn't want to) chickens?

 

[mabhera]

Maybe you should ask is as a birthday/christmas gift.

 

[Sunny Dawn]

Great idea Asa gift! You can also retrofit a box store shed into a nice coop....the small ones are on sale around here for 200-300. I am already looking at them for myself. My chicken math never adds up correctly.....just wanted buff orpingtons.....LOL. Wish I understood chicken math when I started. Now not only am I looking at more chickens but a pair of peacocks and some guinea fowl too. Not to mention I have egging my husband for a couple goats and a donkey.....I wonder if anyone else's chicken math includes mammals?

 

[NightHawk123]

I thought that I would start out with 12 chicks.  The feed store didn't have them when they said they would, so I bought 5 chicks from another feed store.  Then the first feed store called. So I picked up the dozen from them. That put me at 17, so time to start building a coop!  We built the coop and they liked it.  I got impatient for eggs, so I bought 3 EE hens. Then I found out that both my BOs are roosters, so of course I needed some BO pullets for them, right?

So I went to buy 2 BO hens, and came home with 5 hens.  I told my husband that the guy I bought them from was selling his coop, too.  When I went to pick up the coop, the guy offered me a good deal on his remaining 5 hens and a roo. 
I lost one of the BAs to a hawk in June, and an EE past away 2 weeks ago, so right now I'm at 29 total.  Already planning to build a couple more coops to separate my breeds. I think hubby's getting wise to my "chicken math" though, and he knows that more coops means more chickens, not just more room for the ones we already have!

LoL! Chicken math. My wife taught me chicken math. Only took 50 chickens to learn too!

 

[epignosisjs]

Great idea Asa gift! You can also retrofit a box store shed into a nice coop....the small ones are on sale around here for 200-300. I am already looking at them for myself. My chicken math never adds up correctly.....just wanted buff orpingtons.....LOL. Wish I understood chicken math when I started. Now not only am I looking at more chickens but a pair of peacocks and some guinea fowl too. Not to mention I have egging my husband for a couple goats and a donkey.....I wonder if anyone else's chicken math includes mammals?

Well... yes and no. I find that keeping chicken math and "mammal math" separate for one BIG reason. If I lump all of the animals together (the ones we have and the ones we want), the number is much larger, of course, and potentially more overwhelming to hubby (he's working out of state, I'm at home on the "farm"). We are building a house right now, so that takes up most of our project money.

My chickens are set, only a few minor retrofits to make their husbandry easier on me.
The dogs are set, just got a 10' x 10' kennel for my LGD, Solomon, last week because he's growing like a weed on steroids.
Solomon in May, 8 weeks, 19 pounds:

Solomon this month, 19 weeks, 65 pounds:


Now that the critters we have are provided for I can introduce hubby to livestock math, LOL, without including the chicken math and dog math.

He wants to get some cows, turkeys, and maybe goats. And he plans to get me a horse at some point.
Bring 'em on! (one at a time, though!)

 

[Going Quackers]

I am not convinced there is a right answer, we did build our coop with additional birds in mind but i have no desire to add to my 4.. i like it how it is. I've had them for coming on 3mths. I think it's far to easy to get carried away and get yourself stretched to thin. Of coarse i could be just an odd ball

as well i do have more than just them so my plate is quite full at the moment.