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How many chickens did you start off with?

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Joyryder
We have about 37. We put 4 in freezer camp a couple weeks ago. DH said get more so I got 21 more. Plus the ones listed in my siggy. We will eat any extra roos that we don't want staying.
 
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If I keep more than 1 rooster of each breed, then I will have to get more pullets, and more feed and extend the coop and a bigger chicken yard. Where is this going
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DH started off with a total of 12. They were all grown. Then a year later a raccoon got into the pen and killed all but 3. We rebuilt the coop turning it into fort knox and got 18 more stater pullets. Then my son went to Iraq and I needed something to take my mind off him so I ordered 25 chicks. That was over a year ago. Now we have chickens, ducks, turkeys (just recently sold our geese). I have 5 brooders going in the house and with over 65 chicks and DH is going tomorrow to pick up a few more silkies for my grandson. He is also picking up another Jersey Giant Blue cockerel as believe it or not all the chicks he purchased from the breeder were pullets. We have way over 200 chickens Too many to count If I counted them I would be afraid..... very afraid.
 
We started with a rescue of 22 2 year old mixed flock birds in late December (Dang you, craigslist!). Since they are older, I made an order for replacements. Get a couple of these, a few of those, some of them, more of the other. Now we have 70. The coop is full, we have tractors all over the yard, it's been raining for three weeks straight, and it's starting to smell around here. This was supposed to be just a couple for fresh eggs......
yup, this is how the addiction goes......................
 
I started in April with 30 chicks I ordered from Cackle Hatchery, then I got 6 from TSC. 3 of the TSC chicks died and one from Cackle, so I went back and got 6 more, plus 2 mallard ducklings. A few more of the TSC chicks died and I was left with 36 plus two ducks. Then I traded some birds, I sold a few more, was down to 32, then I got my chicks from Ideal Hatchery. I ordered 8, got 15.
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Then I sold 3 the other day from the older pullets, and now I have 44 birds. I'm not keeping all of the new ones though. I am trading all of the RIR cockerels that came from Ideal, plus some of my older ones for some fencing, and I have some eggs in the incubator. By the time I am done I should be right around 40 birds, and I am not done yet. We already have plans for another coop and some more chickens and ducks. This is VERY addicting!
 
WHEW... I feel so "normal," now. I just keep reading on here, and find we are all doing the same thing. My DH always says, "Honey, you do nothing in moderation." Geez, I was starting to believe him, but naaahhhh, this IS moderation! I started with 44 chicks (variety, see my signature) in May 2009, because we decided on 25, and I was told I would lose half of them. I still have all 44 of them. Last week I was gifted 4 cockoo marans (3 hens and 1 roo) that are 1 year old. THEN, I received silkies from a BYCer... that is, ummmm, eerrrr, 8 of them of various ages .... 1 month to 1 year old.

Finished up the nice big 40' x 40'chicken yard last week, on our vacation (except for the top covering). Still not finished with the (12' x 16') coop, as it has no pop door yet.

Using the small 6' x 6' coop for the marans, with a makeshift run, until they are out of quarantine. Then, I was hoping to be able to put them in with the 44 original chicks.??? Silkies are temporarily living in the chicken tractor (as the coop) attached to a small run area, until they are out of quarantine..... then????

I sure have alot to do.... I need ANOTHER vacation ! Am I gonna end up with a half dozen coops and runs? Can I intigrate? This is alot more work than I had anticipated, when I told DH it would sure be nice to have our own farm fresh eggs!

Let's see, I guess I now have about 56 chickens. I just wonder how many are gonna be roosters, at this point.
 
well we wanted 12, so we got 18 just to play it safe, them mom got three more, then 3 more, the 2 more and some more, so now i have 30, and there should be some more sales at the feed store, and these are my first and we have lost one, and almost lost another....(Hope)...
 
Started with seven last August, now at 15 (down from 20 after new order of chicks). Will be at 13 after we cull the remaining cockerels from our new flock. Might do meat birds some time, but 12 laying hens should be more than sufficient for our four-member household. Of course, we still might get some chicks next year...
 
We started off with 3 rescued leghorn hens in 1995. We loved the fresh eggs so much, we expanded our flock. At one time we had up to 21 birds up until a predator break in wiped out many of my birds this past winter.
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I am slowly rebuilding the flock as we have a few different breeds now.

We have three Araucanas two are roos (rumpless/tufted) and one hen (clean faced tailed)
we have 5 silkies
a Pair of ameraucanas - hen is a buff
In the other side of coop we have one ameraucana roo and 5 hens.

In the barn with the silkies my white silkie hen hatched some eggs so we have three chicks there and in the coop my araucana hen hatched eggs so we have three nice ameraucana cross chicks (crossed with EE hens).

We have a total of 21 now (don't tell dh lol)

I would like to get some blue ameraucana hatching eggs from a breeder near me in the future. I am waiting for my araucana hen to go broody again as it is much easier for her to raise (and the integrate into the flock MUCH easier).

Plus I am looking for at least 2 rumpless araucana hens to go with Azul my rumpless tufted cockeral we hatched last year.
 

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