So when we started this chicken stuff..we decided on 8

[georgialee]

Oh man. My signature isn't even right anymore.

I think I have 48 plus two full incubators.

I originally had 12 I believe (last spring).

 

[CorgiHouse]

I never wanted chickens.......

Then we bought a house, which came with an old hen. Sellers asked if she could stay since she was over 10 years old and had always lived there and the others they had all died of old age. What the heck - she can stay. I would have felt terrible making her move at that age!

Can't have just one chicken though. Got another younger hen from a friend's farm to keep Lucy company.

Lucy died of old age the following year.....oops, now we have only one hen left again.

Got 2 EE pullets from a friend who raised a bunch of chicks. They needed each other of course.

3 chickens is a good number! Let's stick with that.

Whoops - raccoon got into the coop after the snow damaged the wire top......killed all 3 girls.

Fixed the coop.

Got 1 young pullet from our chick raising friend, and DH got 2 POL sex-link pullets for cheap. Couldn't turn down that good deal!!

Oh....now I'm really getting into chickens!! I need this breed and that breed.......got 2 more young pullets (supposedly) - but 1 turned into a roo. We need a roo, right? ........so Ralphie stayed. Hmmm-3 went to 5, one of which is a roo!

Still needed an EE - got young hen from chicken raising friend who was getting rid of his chickens!

One hen went broody! Hatched 4 chicks. Kept 2 pullets, gave away the 2 baby roos. (up to 8.....)

Coyotes!!!! got into our pasture and snatched 3 hens while 'free ranging' right outside of the coop - 30 feet from our back yard.

Had to replace those - went to get 1 or 2 - came home with 3 more young pullets. (back to 8...)

Saw an ad for mottled Javas - wow, way cool! Went to get one - came home with two pullets, but one died a couple months later. (9...)

Actually sold one crazy EE pullet.

Saw an ad for an incubator (have got to stop reading CL!!) - cool, hatch our own! (Broody hen was one that got eaten by the nasty coyote.)

Bought the cheap-o incubator. Hatched out 9 chicks. Going to keep 3 or 4.

Bought a better bator......had to test it out! Hatched 4 more chicks this week.

Need more room. DH working on a second coop and run/pasture area.

Currently have 16 eggs in the bator.

Signed up to go to a Swap Meet next month and getting 2 Lavendar Am. and working on a couple others.

So right now I have 7 hens laying and 1 roo + 9 half grown chicks + 4 wee chicks + 16 incubated eggs!! And plans for more!!
I think we'll soon be up to the 20-30 range. Pretty good for someone who never wanted chickens......I love these guys!! Good thing DH does too!!

 

[JerseyHen]

We were going to get 6 or 8 hens for eggs. Minimum order at most hatcheries is 25... checked into the others that have lower minimum and the shipping puts the cost over what welp charged for 25 (more birds, less money). So 6 = 25. Now addicted I find BYC... now I must find a way to add EEs, D'Anvers, and a silkie or two (I don' t count the D'Anvers and Silkies because they are bantams, right?). TSC has a 6 bird minimum here, so all told I expect to have about 31 chicks by the beginning of april. Illness, stress, predation, and roo freezer camp might lower that number, but then again, I am going to a chickenstock and a poultry show in May so... anyone want to make a bet that number is over 40 before summer is over? My hubby just shakes his head and puts up with my crazy notions, wonderful guy.

 

[Momto3]

I swear I wish there was a pill for this chicken addiction.

I started out wanting 3-4 hens for eggs for our family. Then my SIL said I had better get 6 just incase I get an opps roo or two. Well then I just kept finding more breeds that I want. So now I have 8 on order and should be arriving at our local farm store April 1st.

I cant wait to go get all my brooder stuff and get it all set up. This is a horrible affliction.

 

[TigerLilly]

Ok, I only started with the chickens less than a year ago, and this is how it went for my intro to chicken math:
Bought 2 BR pullets
Found out 1 was a roo, exchanged for actual pullet
Found out the other was also cockeral, but kept him anyway...
Still have 2, but now I need to increase my pullet count!
Bought 2 BO pullets to make up for the 1 cockeral;
now I'm up to 4...
Liked them so much, went back & bought 2 more BO pullets, 1 BO x pullet and 1 red star (pity buy cuz she was the only 1 left...3 yrs old).
So that brings me to 8...
Got 2 banty (game) hens just cuz they were different & kinda cute
And the count is 10...
Bought 1 (oh the horror) mixed white hen (Snowflake)
And an EE pullet (to make up for only buying ONE before...)
And 2 EE chicks--
now we're at 14.
found a BA at the feed store...that's 15
Dog killed Snowflake; down to 14...
1 EE chick died; down to 13...
Bought 3 BO chicks, back up, now to 16!
Heather gave me an EE chick so now I'm at 17 --

But wait...I actually have 19 chicks!!! The bad part is, I swear I'm not missing any.
Maybe I actually bought 4 BO pullets from that guy...hmmm
Oh well, that's chicken math for ya!

 

[Kaitie09]

Ok, so 5 years ago we were given 4 hens
a year later we were given a rooster
Went on Craiglist and bought a Silkie pair (turned out one was a rooster)
Dogs killed a hen, so we incubated 4 eggs (all four hatched, but only one hen)
So, we went to TSC and bought 6 chicks (all hens)
that put us up to 11 hens and 5 roosters
Had a very bad winter, 2 more of the original hens died
Cousin wanted to incubate and hatch chicks, we gave her 5 eggs (all 5 hatched with only one rooster)
Chicks grew up, and we took them back

at the end of last June, we were up to 15 hens and 6 roosters
Built a new coop, sold off all hens and roosters except for the 5 my cousin hatched and Big Red(the last of the original 4)
went onto mypetchicken to order 8, then each family member ended up picking three each, so we got 12 chicks (all hens)

Started out with 4, ended up with 17 hens and a rooster

 

[mordarlar]

Quote:
That's nothing. I am sure for some it has reached Chicken Calculus.

 

[gryeyes]

Quote:
<---------------- Chicken Trig.

 

[Liamm_1]

This is a funny thread. When we got our first 6 chicks, I knew nothing, so I said we'll get 3 or 4 to start. The woman we got them from tried to talk us into 15-20 LOL
So, after a while, I said: dang, we could have gotten 20 and it would be no problem!
later we got 12 chicks from the feed store so that makes 17 (we ate one).
Then, we decided (for my son's science project), to build an incubator and hatch Trader Joe's Fertile eggs.
That was a success, and we now have 12 chicks in the brooder lol
THEN....one of our original pullets went broody. So I set 9 eggs under her March 1st.
The way I see it, we'll never have to buy chicken or eggs again

EDIT: to add to the comedy... I thought 4 chickens would be sufficient. However, we now have 17 freee ranging, 12 in the brooder, and 9 eggs waiting to hatch.

)

 

[VI KING RANCH]

I currently have 24 in the brooder have another 48-60 expected to hatch and I am going to the local swap to see what else I can pick up. Plus in april I will have another 80 hatching and will be buying one dozen mind you I started out with 12 layers and a roo and now have 62 layers and 6 Roos.