How do I get my wife to learn chicken math?

[jimz1]

I'm trying to learn chicken math and I came up with this. If I lose a chic/chicken that would be worth 5 morechick/chickens. Is that close enough? My wife doesn't agree. She says we have enough. 3 roosters and 12 hens. We lost 2 chicks right from the start about 4 months ago,and lost 1 rooster last week due to the heat. according to my figuring, we need 15 more chickens. Our coop is big enough for 30 but she says no!
She tells me that when they are established layers, that we should get acout 3 doz. eggs a week, that is if each one lays 3 eggs a week x 12 hens = 36 eggs. I tell her that won't be enough.
How do I change her mind?

 

[ChickiKat]

My math is a little more generous than yours. We lost 2 chickens and replaced them with 9. It is working well for us. And I didnt even use a calculator!

 

[bt03]

You get bantam chicks!!! 4 bantam chicks are worth one regular chick but then you add the cute factor and you can get about a dozen or so for what you could have gotten 2 regular size chicks! Wait my math might be off because we got 9 when I lost one regular size chick

Math is so hard for me so just get a few and beg forgiveness because that is easier than asking permission

 

[critterranch]

find a type of chicken she like maybe cochins or silkies. then she will get hooked.

 

[sadies chicks]

also explain to her that one rooster needs about 10-12 hens, so your roos are WAY outnumbered and to make it fair for everyone (the poor girls you have now will start to be abused by the boys since there are not enough hens to "handle" the boys and their agressive breeding behaviour) you need to up the antie by about 20

 

[saddina]

Bantams is fractions for chicken math.

Wait till you try hatching math.... "since shipped eggs only hatch at 50% set, and 50% of those can be roosters, I need to order 4 times as many eggs as I told hubby we needed hens.

 

[FLchook]

also explain to her that one rooster needs about 10-12 hens, so your roos are WAY outnumbered and to make it fair for everyone (the poor girls you have now will start to be abused by the boys since there are not enough hens to "handle" the boys and their agressive breeding behaviour) you need to up the antie by about 20

I agree!!!​

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

No! No! No!

You need one rooster for each hen! Or at least one roo for each pair of hens. I have plenty of extras available

However, chicks NEVER count until they are laying, and minimum hatchery order is almost always 25 (or you pay a shipping bonus, and who wants to do that?), So, even if you purchase from a breeder, you need 25 chicks, and chicks do not count, so...order as many as your heart could desire

Do be sure to get some adorable, dainty breeds for DW, and take her out for a special "you do not have to cook" night at her favourite restaurant (bonus points if it is not one you particularly favour) the day before they are due to arrive.

Oh, and let her find out about the order when they arrive, or whenever she firsts notices them.

PS. Order them in whatever her favourite colours are.

PPS. Do NOT tell her they are a Birthday or Anniversary present to her. You can tell her that you ordered her present to you, though.

 

[ChicksterJo]

Tell her that the more eggs you will get, the more of them you can sell to help pay for their feed.
Get some very cute chicks...I'm always head over heels for some poofy faced babies - find her weakness and work it!
And I completely agree with the ratio of roos to hens. You definitely need at least 12 hens for each rooster...I've heard that a rooster could handle 20 maybe even 25 hens, and you want to keep peace in the coop, after all.
Also tell her that new chicks are like insurance - the more chicks you have, the more you will be hedged against unpredictable disaster, such as one of your older chickens dying.

 

[mama24]

I agree with all of the great advice above.

It's always better to ask for forgiveness than permission. lol

My dh got hooked after I went to the feed store and just got 2-3 of every different breed of bantam I could figure from the bins, plus the EE's I wanted, plus 1 sexed light brahma pullet, b/c I wanted her. My dh was SO upset when he came home and found like 15 extra chicks in with what I'd already gotten for my photographer friends to use in Easter pics. But he fell in love with several of those bantams, namely our bantam salmon Faverolle due to her personality, our bantam Sultan pullet due to her ridiculous pouf and sweet personailty, and our little bantam tolbunt Polish mix, b/c she is the tiniest chicken anyone has ever seen (and we have a friend who breeds seramas!) and her coloring and swept back pouf are hilarious, and she also has a sweet personality to top it off. He also really likes our bantam rooster, who is now 4 mos old and very very full of himself, despite his size. He makes us very happy by just watching him for a little while. rofl. I never thought I'd like bantams until I got some. They are SO much fun!