How many birds are in your current flock?

[Juanita37]

Mine's a looong story.
This all started 2 years ago when we bought our current house. The former owners were going to do a mission and left 3 chickens behind in the coop. They'd let them free range and didn't really have much to do with them so that's where it began. One died not long after so it was down to a hen and a rooster. The roo was awful and I hated it so dh had to deal with him. I found someone selling 3 hens so I got those, got 4 baby sexlink chicks from the feed store, 8 Rhode Islands from a hatchery and since then have just kind of exploded from there.

I currently have 25, including Barred Rocks (from a friend) Blue Cooper Marans (same friend), the chicks I raised, a couple mixes from someone else, more sexlinks that a woman didn't want anymore, the 7 teens I bought as 12 weekers (Wyandottes, Buff Orpingtons, and a Light Brahma) and 3 Easter egger roos that I hatched under a broody hen. And 19 in the incubator.

 

[EggWalrus]

Right now my flocks are down. Only about 100.
I'm an admitted Chick-a-holic. A dozen is too many and 10,000 ain't enough!

Just being honest!

 

[Ljc01]

I started with 3 ex battery hens, then a young lady down the street didn't want to take care of her 3 chickens. We took them in.
They I bought 2 Austrolorps and 2 EE's from the local breeder. My other neighbor had a RIR that was too noisy and a Black SL that was mean to her other birds, so into my coop they went. I also was given a a beautiful BR from another neighbor who was going to cull because it was too aggressive to the other chickens.
On top of that I bought 5 Andalusian. only was going to get 3, but the breeder said "buy 4 and I will give you the 5th one free"
None of my original birds are still with me, but I now have 13 total.
My DH is building we a bigger coop!

 

[arrowti]

I currently have 10 adult hens, 2 adult roosters (one bantam). 2 young cockerels (or 1 may be a pullet, still undecided), and 7 chicks.

They live in the same enclosure as our 5 ducks, 4 hens and 1 drake.

I would not say these birds get along particularly well, because I have a lot of bullies in my flock. I used to have 40 hens and 3 roosters in the same space getting along perfectly with the ducks. It all depends on the individual bird, honestly..

 

[Alexandra33]

Our flock size has fluctuated quite a bit since we first ventured into the world of chickens back in 2014. Mean cockerels eliminate themselves, hens die of natural causes, a predator takes an occasional bird here and there....all of which are heartbreaking occurrences, but they make room in our hearts (and coop) for new additions to the family.

The flock started out with a measly 5 birds; 2 Barred Rocks, 1 Buff Orpington, 1 Welsummer, and 1 Black Australorp. Little did we know it would mushroom into raising close to 200 birds within a few years.

Current poultry:
4 Plymouth Rocks (Barred, White, and bantam Columbian)
14 Easter Eggers
7 Marans (Black Copper, Black, Blue Splash, Wheaten, Golden Cuckoo, and Black Tailed Buff)
Sicilian Buttercup
Black Sumatra
Silver Spangled Hamburg
Buff Orpington
5 Welsummers
4 White Leghorns
2 Cream Legbars
2 Wyandottes (Golden Laced and bantam Silver Penciled)
Black Isbar
Blue Orpington/Blue Andalusian....not sure which yet.
Speckled Sussex
5 d'Uccles (Mille Fleur and Porcelain)
2 Black Rosecombs
2 Wheaten Ameraucana bantams
2 Salmon Faverolles bantams
4 Golden Sebrights
11 Silkies (assorted colors)
13 Old English Game bantams (Blue Red, Splash Blue Red, Black Breasted Red, Silver Duckwing, Crele, White, Barred, and Ginger Red)
Black Tailed White Japanese bantam
Red Cochin bantam
Buckeye bantam
Sage Gem bantam
Gray Call duck
Black East Indie
Bourbon Red turkey
Royal Palm turkey

Past poultry:
Partridge Rock
Lavender Orpington
2 d'Uccles (Mille Fleur and Porcelain)
Olive Egger
Buff Brahma
White Silkie
Black Australorp
Production Red
Barnevelder
Speckled Sussex
2 Ameraucanas (Blue and Black)
2 Black Cochins
10 Easter Eggers
3 Wyandottes (Silver Laced, Blue Laced Red, and bantam Silver Penciled)
2 Black Breasted Red Phoenix
Golden Campine
2 Egyptian Fayoumis
2 Appenzeller Spitzhaubens
3 Isbars (Black and Blue)
Black Copper Marans
Buckeye
Crele OEGB
White OEGB
Spangled OEGB
7 Mallards
2 Khaki Campbells
Buff duck
Blue Indian Runner
2 Cayugas
5 Call ducks (Blue Bibbed, Pastel, Blue Fawn, and Snowy)

There's potential that I missed a few.

~Alex

 

[Dmontgomery]

We started with 6 in 2013, 5 hens and a rooster. By the next spring, family and friends were calling to ask if they could rehome their chickens with us, so we gained another 10. Since all we had were 2 little hutches barely big enough for the original 6, I had to build a new 10x10 coop with a 14x17 run over the July 4th weekend in 2014. Since it’s only 100 degrees in July here, nobody volunteered to help.
Since we had plenty of room in the new coop, more “friends” offered more chickens and the flock slowly grew. By May 2015 I had to build another new coop (by my self), this time 16x16 with a 16x32 run attached. I gently explained the new coop/run could only accommodate 70 birds MAX, so my wife bought 30 chicks locally over a 2 week period. She’s helpful like that.
A couple months later a stray guinea found her way to our property from its home a couple miles away. My wife decided it must be lonely so she went out and got 2 more guineas (mating pair) to keep it company. So now we had a mixed flock.
We do not break any of our hens when they go broody. Since we only have about 3 weeks of winter here, they lay and sit ALL the time. Last year our count got up to 72 at one time. Fortunately we had 10 cockerels in that mix so we were able to get rid of some.
At last count we had 60+, I don’t remember the exact number. We’ve given up on trying to name all of them just this year. There’s just too many to keep track of. We have 3 hens sitting on a total of 15 eggs right now, 4 chicks only 1 week old, and a female guinea sitting on a clutch of 23, who hasn’t weaned the 9 left from her hatch in May yet.
Our chicken math is almost chicken calculus.

 

[Below frigid]

Almost 4 years old? She no longer lays? If no. How old was she when she stopped laying?

3, we adopted her and her 3 friends. One disappeared, coyote? One just died for no reason and a bobcat got one. She integrated with our flock mates often with one of the rooms but no more eggs. She seems happy and healthy. She may be a little older. We have a lot going on in our flock right now. Babies teenagers pullets and hens.

 

[EggWalrus]

Those older hens that slow down or quit laying are still worth their weight in gold. They teach the younger hens thru example and often keep youngins in their place. They show younger ones what is safe to eat and where to find it. lots of old hens will adopt babies if a Momma deserts them. Thank God for older hens.

 

[bobbi-j]

Currently 19, will be fewer after we thin the flock before winter. Right now, two cockerels are on the list, and possibly one Red Ranger pullet. (The RRs really should have been processed a month or more ago, but I only have the 5 pullets, and they started laying before the ones designed for laying did so I kept them.) The Rangers will be monitored and processed if they start to show any signs of discomfort due to their size, or if egg shell quality declines.

 

[KrombopulousManny]

8 production reds, 12 jersey giants, 5 barred rocks, 5 California whites, 3 black Cochins, a black australorp, and a buff Orpington