I'm new to chickens so I decided to start out small with 8 layers. That has rapidly turned into 20 inside of a month....8=20. So today me and hubby were working on the coop (I know we put the cart before the horse) but as we were putting the walls on I realized that as big as the coop will be (8x10) that if two square ft per chicken (minimum).....thats 8x10=80/20 chickens equals 4 square ft per birds.....that leaves me some play room......I sure am eyeballing some Brahmas
I wanted 3-4 chickens to scratch around in the garden after I am done with it... eggs were to be a bonus. Then I saw 3 breeds that I wanted (BR, BO, EE) so I decided to build for 6. My run ended up over 300sqft. I went to buy chicks and my regular feedstore only had straight run. SO I went to a different one and they had a bin full of Golden Comets - all with pasty butt. So I bought 2 (not one of my 3breeds I wanted). I went to another feedstore and they had Barred Rocks (breed choice) so I got 2...and Brahmas - which weren't one of my breeds but looked really cool so I got 2.
so I had my 6
BUT I didn't have my breeds. So, back to the feedstore a week later and picked up 3 EEs (on the list) and 2 RIR (not on the list). Still didn't have BO, but I had 11 chickens. Week later BOs came in and I got 2 BO and 2 JG. 1 BO died so I bought 2 more (fuzzy math).
All final:
2 BR
2 Brahma
2 Golden Comet
2 RIR
3 EEs
2 JG
3 BO
-------
16 chickens!!! I expanded my run from 300sqft to about 450sqft and broke out the wall seperating my coop from my shed.
Good thing I only wanted 3 chickens, I'd have real trouble if I wanted more.
Started with 20 hens + 3 peanuts =23; and 50 meaties, got hungry -49 = 1; +23 =24; then hatched 28; +24 = 52; couldn't resist 5 chicks at feed store + 5=57; bought 20 from friend +2 peanuts = 79, got hungry - 34; = 45; lost 7 to predators = 37; hatched 35 more for a grand total at this moment of 72!! Gotta love chicken math!
Promised DH that we wouldn't ever have more than 24....
Just great NurseELB, what have you gotten me into? I don't think my little house can handle that kind of chicken math LOL. Not to mention my back yard barely holds a person and two dogs!
But then again my bantams or actually 'parrots', at least that's my story and I'm sticken too it!
When I first decided to have chickens, I had no idea that they multiplied so quickly!
I wanted five or so hens to keep mostly as pets w/ egg benefits. So my DH brought home 8 hens and a rooster.
Just this weekend we went to an auction to hopefully find 2-3 hens that were more likely to go broody than the reds we have now. We came home with 1 cochin hen, 2 barred rock hens, 14 cochin chicks, and 17 other chicks of indeterminate breed! Oh, and two kittens--our two at home needed buddies
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Well I got the Lt. Brahmas yesterday so 20=22 and then I went fishing and my friend gave me to polish hens that are already laying so 22=24 (added 4 in one day). Has anyone found a cure to the chicken bug?
I'm helpless lol
