Husband is really going to kill me over my chicken math skills!!!

[scbatz33]

I started with 5 several years ago. We got up to over 200 the first full year. Then back down and up and down. Now I have the following:

5 orp roos growing out - but 3 are for sure gone.
3 polish roos growing out - but 1 maybe 2 are out
2 orp roos and 5 hens in the breeding pen
7 opr babies - 2months old
3 orp babies - 2 weeks old
3 orp crosses - 2 weeks but will probably sell
3 serama crosses - 2 weeks old - growing out to see what happens. May sell but the are FRIZZLED!!!!

in the incubator:
3 serama eggs
79 orp eggs

waiting to go in:
12 orp eggs and what ever is in the barn for today....

Ummm and I have an orp roo to pick up and 3 polish pullets heading my way hopefully end of the week.

BUT....BIG BUT HERE....2/3 of the eggs probably won't hatch. and 1/2 will be boys so really....I don't have that many.

 

[thomshap]

I have six hens, and they often worry me with a sneeze or a red bum, and I keep imagining that if I have more girls, they will each matter less to me incrementally, and I won't be so obsessed about their health. Also, I rationalize that they will be warmer in winter, the more of them there are in the unheated coop. That being said, I plan on getting 2 chicks to raise this spring. Doesn't 8 seem like a nice even number.

 

[dltc96]

My wife and I were going over our chicken math today. Ours is involving building what amounts to a covered porch for our existing coop, a meat bird shelter and run attached to the "porch", an extension of the roof over our existing run, and a number of gates and doors to give us (and the chickies) access to all areas.

We started with 10 (2 EE and 8 BA), but we lost four to a very brazen fox and her kits last spring. That left us with 1 EE and 5 BA. Now we have 25 meat birds, 2 EE, 3 SLW, and 3 Columbian Wyandottes on order through McMurray; they'll be here in a little less than a month.

Our other issue has turned out to be Rabbit Math. We started with one buck (now an "it") as a pet, then we got another buck, and a month or so later a doe. Now we have 6 kits out with the doe for a bit. We'll probably keep one of them. We'll be going to a rabbit show in early May to look into some more breeding stock. I'm getting ready to tear apart the buck hutch (it's old and worn out) and build a new, bigger, better hutch to house 3 bucks. I'll also be building two new hutches to house 4 does, and use the existing doe hutch as a grow out hutch for the kits.

Boy, all of this animal math really does add up, doesn't it.

 

[SassyKat6181]

I started with 12 chicks last September. Went to TSC a few weeks ago and brought home 4 Mallards. The next day ordered 10 more ducks. They arrived yesterday with 4 red roos as packing peanuts. Today decided that the roos needed friends so I went to TSC and brought home 6 red pullets......so in a matter of weeks I go from being happy with my 12 laying hens to 36.

And I'm still considering the 4 BSL a lady posted on craigslist.

 

[jenesis536]

I went to the feed store yesterday and when I went up to the register with one of the largest feeders the checker just looked at me and said "you got it bad!".

Yep!

I just picked up 4 silkie chicks today... they'll be 5 weeks Monday! Add them to the five 1.5 week cochins & cochin/ameraucana x, two 5 week old splash marans, eight other chicks that are 8 weeks old and my five 23 week old pullets... 24. Each time I tell my hubby that's it! I mean it really this time.

Got 2 coops up and got a freebie rabbit hutch the other day I'm refurbishing for a brooder coop or in case any of them get injured (I told my hubby it was for the 2 silkies I was going to get, but now we got 4), so now I'm stalking CL for another coop for the silkies.

I am usually pretty sneaky about getting new chicks, but hubby wanted to go with me today so I told him - No talking or squaking about anything - you just go along with whatever I say or do and I don't want to hear anything about it. After we went to the breeders to get the silkies, he said nothing. Probably because the lady's hubby sat there while the woman had 4 large bins on her kitchen table with a ton of chicks and a large dog kennel with the silkies next to it. I told him - my next adventure is incubating my own eggs "kidding honey!"....

I'm sure he had visions of what our dining room could look like. No peeps out of him! I'm a lucky girl.

 

[dkvart1]

I haven't even got chickens yet, but seem to have a grasp of the math. My plans originally were for 6 or 8. Then I thought about it... no, 10 would be better. Yes, 10 would definately be better, after all I garden and it's great fertilizer. Then I saw some wonderfully decorated eggs here on BYC and thought maybe I'd like to decorate eggs at some point, would need more eggs, right? So I should have more chickens, maybe 12 or 15 and so it went.

Luckily the house we are looking at buying is only on a little over an acre and since it lies at the edge of town, but within the city limits and we can only have 25... problem solved, 25 it is!

 

[LovedbyHim]

Quote:

And Rancher if you get all of those chickens... can I have them if you die?

 

[AuntieE]

Apparently I'm not very good at chicken math.

I placed an order for 6 chicks that will be arriving in a couple of weeks. I figure if one is a roo, or doesn't make the trip than I still have 4-the minimum number I would want. I thought DH would appreciate not overdoing it my first try with chickens. But then he finds out shipping runs $40 for less than 15, so he said why don't you just get "a bunch" at the feed store, and if they're roos we can get rid of them. So- I call the feed store, and low and behold, they just got in 125 barred rocks and golden comets. So I figure why not-and take my 4 kids (ages 6,5,4,& 3) to get 12-15 chickies. We get there- and all 125 are gone! All that's left are a few banties. So drive the hour back home with some disappointed kids! Go back and review my online order- considering adding barred rocks and golden comets to the order- but don't have the nerve to do it yet........so I'm still at 6.. I think I'm flunking!

 

[kla37]

As much as I would love to become a victim of chicken math, I just don't have the space. My coop and run are a bit under capacity, but it gives them more room. My fenced in yard has plenty of space, and I think they are really happy right now. In a few years I will add another coop to mirror the one I have so the elderly ladies will have a place to live out their golden years, and then I can start a new small flock for eggs. I have to avoid TSC chick days though! I had a lot of success with 2 chicks that had curled toes, and I know I would take home any like that! I love looking at everyone's pictures of their new cute little fluffy butts! But if I had a lot of land.......

 

[aprhardy]

I'd been keeping up with this thread and thinking "I've got it bad too!", but my dear friend (and the one who gave me my first chickens) emailed me last night informing me that I had to check out this thread about my chicken math. So I figured I'd give in and post my story. Here goes:

My BF and I have been best friends for the last 2+ years, during this time I frequently mentioned I wanted chickens, my exBF had a firm "no chickens" policy. So long story short we broke up (not bc of the "no chicken" policy but a good enough reason! Haha) so then my best friend and I started dating, and one day I mentioned it to him. "Honey I'd really like some chickens", his reply "ok a couple would be nice". So I began months of chicken research, reading the raising chickens for dummies book (aka Chicken Bible) and stalking BYC and a few other sites looking for info. Around first of the year (2011) I became more insistent on wanting some chickens. My BF informed me we needed to wait until the weather got better and we could get a coop built. By this time I really was feeling like it was constantly getting shoved to the back burner, which frustrated me. I had decided the breed of chickens I loved (or was going to love) were buff brahma's. Being the CL stalker I am, I wasn't seeing anything I really wanted. Then one day I shrieked with excitement someone was offering 4 Buff Brahma roo's for FREE! Whhhhat?!! FREEE! What better word in our chicken loving hearts than free? So I asked my BF about free roo's of the breed I wanted, he said ok, we would keep one and send the other 3 to freezer camp. (currently they're all alive and well and will probably never go to freezer camp bc they are big babies and pets) No biggie to me. We go meet this super sweet lady and she gives us 4 roo's who are just beyond gorgeous! However, one of the roo's is still questionable as to whether it is a he or she. No eggs and no crow and pushing 4 months old, one day we'll find out for sure! Haha

So we come home with 4 roo's scratching our heads going... "hmmm where we gonna put em?" So we build temp outdoor pens for them, with plans to build a coop soon to house them. To back track a bit, the day we went to pick them up, I placed and order for 25 Light Brahma pullets, (they didn't offer the buff's sexed and I figured I'd be ok since they're still Brahma's), and couldn't resist the "FREE Mystery chick", theres that F word again, which will be here around the 28th of March. Thinking that would give us plenty of time to adjust to having chickens, since it was the middle of February when we got the roo's.
Well my roo's seemed so lonely, I found some older hens on CL that needed a home, so I got 7 (a mixed bunch of Wynadottes, Speckled Sussex and Dominiques (which equals ZERO Brahma hens) and brought them home, boy those roo's were beyond excited!! Well one had serious attitude issues, and was mean so she went to freezer camp early. But after 2 weeks these older hens had only produced 2 eggs.....thinking I needed more eggs, I found yet another CL post for young pullets (5 months old, 2 Buff Orpintongs 2 Rhode Island Reds) (Still no Brahma momma's if your keeping up). In the midst of my "must have hens" madness, I went to TSC for something..don't even remember what is was now, and probably didn't get it.....but they had bins of the cutest little fuzzy butts! As inpatient as I had been waiting for my light Brahma babies to get here, I thought oh a couple will tide me over and let me get used to having babies! Well, 8 Tetra Tint fuzzy butts later (all pullets supposedly), I'm on my way home. I thought I was going to be hung from the rafters when I walked in the house with them and my BF saw I had chicks. (He acts like he doesn't like them, but he holds them, pets them and feeds them as much as I do).
Sooooo if your keeping count here is my chicken math:

3 Buff Brahma roo's
1 Buff Brahma "it"
2 Speckled Sussex
2 Columbian Wynadottes
2 Dominiques
2 Buff Orpingtons
2 Rhode Island Reds
8 Tetra Tint pullets
25 Light Brahma day old chicks (in the mail)
1 Mystery Chick
------------------------------------------------
48 chickens total

All acquired or will be arriving within a month of getting my first chickens.

Now that my friends is bad chicken math!! LOL! I should have an A++++!! Or a PhD in Chicken Math!! Hahahaha!

I seriously need a chicken addicts help group or something. If all goes as planned our coop will be here tomorrow! Sooo exciting!! Oh and my BF has agreed that if one of the hens goes broody, then I can let her have some eggs to raise! I think bad chicken math is contagious! Say a prayer for me, this coming weekend I am going to a poultry show!