Official BYC Poll: How Many Chickens Do You Have?

[Tookie]

20! 15 standards and 5 bantams.
Ages varying from 10.5 years to 5.5 months!

I have 7 ducks as well, 2 years old in February.

 

[Perris]

I started with 3 Swedish Flower pullets back in 2017. Acquiring an accidental cockerel in 2018, and wanting to let them live as naturally as possible, ultimately led to a flock of about 30 now.

I sporadically buy in hatching eggs for some broodies to increase the variety in the flock gene pool, to help preserve rare chicken genes, and to prevent inbreeding issues.

 

[kurby22]

We have about 75! Mostly bantams though. We breed and show birds, but half of the newer ones are babies from broody mommas this summer who successfully hid their eggs from us and were unsanctioned We are actively working to bring that number down, so it’s more manageable…but how? They’re all my favorites!!

 

[BDutch]

I started with 4 bantams (Dutch) in 2014. Wanted a few more the next year and eggs from the cockerel who had to leave in spring bc of the noise and annoyed neighbours. The 3 new pullets could stay. The tiny prefab coop was too small for sic, and I neede to build an extension to the prefab with a larger roost space. Had 6 Dutch for some years.

I liked that number for a bantam flock.
Easy to manage. No need of a big coop /run. I only let them free range when I am at home. So adequate run space is important.

When the number of eggs dropped I bought hatching eggs several times, when I had a broody . I got interested in other bantams breeds and have 5 - 9 chickens (not counting chicks) ever since.

I extended the run bc the run was getting too small with 9 chickens. Other breeds complicated things. Flocks dynamics changed over the years (no youngsters allowed to roost in the extension coop) . When the chicks of a larger bantam breed last year started to roost, the small prefab coop was getting too small. So I had to add another coop to give them their own comfortable space to roost.

I have 8 now and don’t want more bc more chickens would mean I have to build a larger run and have more work. I don’t think it would make me happier.

I keep records on the app Anymal. My current flock (dates of hatch dd-mm-‘yy):

 

[Kiki]

Big fat zero.

 

[SouthCentralWeasel]

I have 110 not including the chicks I've been hatching weekly since October

 

[MROO]

Big fat zero.

Okay ... but how many quail? It's just not fair that you can more than double the number of birds you can keep in the same space that even bantams require!

 

[Debbie292d]

We ran as high as 110+ this summer. I was hatching chicks every five days and selling them fast, so that number varied.

Come winter, other than our four old pet-quality silkies, just living out their days here, I kept only those I plan to breed or am growing out to see if they will be SOP. So we're going through the winter with 55 silkies and three ducks.