Understanding Chicken Math

[crazyfeathers]

I look at my chickens as gangs because of the way each group sticks together when you add them in with the flock. I have 12 chickens who are 14 weeks old in from TSC so that equals 1, I call them the tractor supply gang. I have 5 from an auction in Kellner around 8 weeks old, again that equals 1. My polish, silkies, bantams, Duccles and turkens are not considered gangs and I believe they fall in the ornamental group so that = 0. My older girls are just that, I honestly can't tell you how many there are just that they here first and are never counted. I've only named 3 chickens and 2 of them are Duccles so we got 1 there. I believe I don't have 63 chickens I only have 3. My hubby tells me never to bring home just 1 chick and I always listen to my husband. Lol oops forgot about the frizzle gang but they are 5 weeks old so they don't count either. My name is crazyfeathers and it has been 30 days since I brought any chickens home oh wait....... Lol lol awesome thread.

 

[Drewnkat]

Ha! I love this. My husband was talking about getting "4-6 chickens" last year. Just a few to get us started since we're inexperienced.

Then the neighbors down the street got chickens. I swear they must have at least 30. Her husband and sons keep bringing more home, they are definitely proficient at chicken math. They have a silkie who is frequently broody, and she's hatched eggs for them. Obviously those don't count because they weren't purchased, right?

So anyways, we went down there to look at their setup and talk turkey, erm, chicken. The son is showing off all the cool stuff he's built and re-purposed for the chickens (like a store display rack that was made from wood, someone was throwing away and he set it up into a nesting hi-rise for the girls). He has bragging rights, their setup is awesome. The mom got out her Mille Fleur bantam and let me hold her, while feeding her mealworm treats. By the time we were home hubby was adamant no less than 8 chicks would do for right now and he wants to build a bigger coop to house 20+ chickens within the next couple years. We have five acres, it's perfectly reasonable.

So our first batch of chicks has arrived, hubby is fascinated by them, and already we're discussing the possibility of getting a turkey to raise (plenty of time to finish one by November, hubby is crazy about his Thanksgiving Turkey). The coop for our chickies isn't even completed yet.

Chicken math at work.

 

[nanasue31204]

Let me see if I can figure out my chicken math here. Decided to get chicks for the first time, agreed 15 was a good number to start with. Go online, start researching breeds and finding hatcheries with good reviews, it's going good....but wait if I order 25 I get free shipping

and some could die during shipping and the first couple weeks so we will still end up with 15. Pick out 25, sweet they give a free chicken if you donate her eggs to someone, ok sure, ooohhhh there's an adopt me program, maybe just a couple of those too! So now we are up to 28 chicks, they arrive and I count them and there's a bonus chick, woohoo, 29 cute little chicks, I'm instantly in love. A friend calls and asks if I'll take one of her roosters, of coarse I have to save him and boy is he a handsome devil! Pick him up but the chicks are only a couple weeks and can't join him in the run and he's crowing like crazy, he's lonely

he needs a girlfriends

! Frantically search online for someone locally who had laying hens, go pick her up and see he has 2 hens, yes I must have them both. Go to a local fair and see 2 buff Cochins, fall in love and must have them, then someone had an ameracauna hen, I love colored eggs so I take her home too. So now I'm up to 35, but one chick died

so that's only 34, found out my 2 buff cochin hens were actually roosters, so now I need a couple more hens. Back online to find some local people, come home with 3 golden comets. 34+3=37, well 37 is such a weird number so maybe just a couple silkies, or 4, to round us out. 41 was our number but then I had another chick die suddenly, my poor little polish pullet

, then 2 more hens have passed away, and we had to send one buff cochin to the freezer, mean little bugger. So now I have 37 chickens, but only 2 hens are laying at the moment, actually only one because my RIR went broody a week ago and is sitting on 2 eggs, my other 2 hens aren't laying yet and my chicks are 10 weeks old and some are Roos so they don't count right? My silkies are only 5 1/2 months and I'm not sure of the sex yet so they don't count either. !!! Did I mention I went to pick up 4 Muscovy ducklings and came home with 9 and that next weekend is another fair where I plan to just "look" for another cochin hen

, which is perfectly fine since my math goes like this, 46 birds but only one hen laying and the rest either broody, not laying, chicks, roosters and the 9 ducklings are only 2 weeks old and I don't know the sexes yet, so I only have 1 chicken! Lucky for me my hubby loves me and my chicken math and just keeps expanding the coop and is going to build me an incubator soon too hahahaha! He calls me chicken mama now and he is quickly becoming chicken papa!

 

[subhanalah]

My chicken math skills keep getting better! 

Ok, so I started off wanting 3 chicks, ordered 4 "just in case"...but then decided I NEEDED those chocolate eggs, so I added a black copper maran. THEN the small human says we need "blue eggs" - so I'm trying to get a cream legbar from my hatchery.

In the meantime, the small human fell in love with silkies...we found a local breeder who will sell sexed pullets & will have a female later this summer.

6, 7 - who can count anymore!

pah!!!

 

[jujub41482]

I love this post. I'm not alone or crazy

Oh, you are definitely not!

 

[Gingersnap722]

Ha! I love this. My husband was talking about getting "4-6 chickens" last year. Just a few to get us started since we're inexperienced.

Then the neighbors down the street got chickens. I swear they must have at least 30. Her husband and sons keep bringing more home, they are definitely proficient at chicken math. They have a silkie who is frequently broody, and she's hatched eggs for them. Obviously those don't count because they weren't purchased, right?

So anyways, we went down there to look at their setup and talk turkey, erm, chicken. The son is showing off all the cool stuff he's built and re-purposed for the chickens (like a store display rack that was made from wood, someone was throwing away and he set it up into a nesting hi-rise for the girls). He has bragging rights, their setup is awesome. The mom got out her Mille Fleur bantam and let me hold her, while feeding her mealworm treats. By the time we were home hubby was adamant no less than 8 chicks would do for right now and he wants to build a bigger coop to house 20+ chickens within the next couple years. We have five acres, it's perfectly reasonable.

So our first batch of chicks has arrived, hubby is fascinated by them, and already we're discussing the possibility of getting a turkey to raise (plenty of time to finish one by November, hubby is crazy about his Thanksgiving Turkey). The coop for our chickies isn't even completed yet.

Chicken math at work.

I am so glad to hear that chicks hatched by our broody don't count. Wait....even if you bought the fertilized eggs they still don't count?

I really want a couple of turkeys, luckily our next door neighbors (hubby's cousin) bought a male and female turkey so that cured my urge to get some since we're over there all the time. Well, for now anyway.

 

[Gingersnap722]

Let me see if I can figure out my chicken math here. Decided to get chicks for the first time, agreed 15 was a good number to start with. Go online, start researching breeds and finding hatcheries with good reviews, it's going good....but wait if I order 25 I get free shipping

and some could die during shipping and the first couple weeks so we will still end up with 15. Pick out 25, sweet they give a free chicken if you donate her eggs to someone, ok sure, ooohhhh there's an adopt me program, maybe just a couple of those too! So now we are up to 28 chicks, they arrive and I count them and there's a bonus chick, woohoo, 29 cute little chicks, I'm instantly in love. A friend calls and asks if I'll take one of her roosters, of coarse I have to save him and boy is he a handsome devil! Pick him up but the chicks are only a couple weeks and can't join him in the run and he's crowing like crazy, he's lonely

he needs a girlfriends

! Frantically search online for someone locally who had laying hens, go pick her up and see he has 2 hens, yes I must have them both. Go to a local fair and see 2 buff Cochins, fall in love and must have them, then someone had an ameracauna hen, I love colored eggs so I take her home too. So now I'm up to 35, but one chick died

so that's only 34, found out my 2 buff cochin hens were actually roosters, so now I need a couple more hens. Back online to find some local people, come home with 3 golden comets. 34+3=37, well 37 is such a weird number so maybe just a couple silkies, or 4, to round us out. 41 was our number but then I had another chick die suddenly, my poor little polish pullet

, then 2 more hens have passed away, and we had to send one buff cochin to the freezer, mean little bugger. So now I have 37 chickens, but only 2 hens are laying at the moment, actually only one because my RIR went broody a week ago and is sitting on 2 eggs, my other 2 hens aren't laying yet and my chicks are 10 weeks old and some are Roos so they don't count right? My silkies are only 5 1/2 months and I'm not sure of the sex yet so they don't count either. !!! Did I mention I went to pick up 4 Muscovy ducklings and came home with 9 and that next weekend is another fair where I plan to just "look" for another cochin hen

, which is perfectly fine since my math goes like this, 46 birds but only one hen laying and the rest either broody, not laying, chicks, roosters and the 9 ducklings are only 2 weeks old and I don't know the sexes yet, so I only have 1 chicken! Lucky for me my hubby loves me and my chicken math and just keeps expanding the coop and is going to build me an incubator soon too hahahaha! He calls me chicken mama now and he is quickly becoming chicken papa!

Lol, my hubby keeps encouraging me to get more and keeps building more coops. What lucky girls we are!!

Which hatchery did you use?

 

[rnchick74]

I went to the feed store today and couldn't resist getting a Silver Laced Wynadotte as a companion for my other lonely chick. The store just got them in and didn't have a barcode to scan for them so they rang the chick up as a retaining wall block, which was the same price. So my receipt says I bought a block, not a chick... so it doesn't count.

Nope, the receipt proves it is NOT a chicken! It is a building implement. Good job!!! You need to call it Blockhead or Blockie, or something to commemorate

 

[rnchick74]

pah!!!

Yeah, I can't call him my "baby" anymore because he just turned 6 and it too big for that. But I refuse to call him a big boy because he's my 1 and only so we settled on his official title "The small human who calls me Mom". It fits until he is taller than me, then he will be the "young human who calls me Mom".

 

[rnchick74]

Let me see if I can figure out my chicken math here. Decided to get chicks for the first time, agreed 15 was a good number to start with. Go online, start researching breeds and finding hatcheries with good reviews, it's going good....but wait if I order 25 I get free shipping

and some could die during shipping and the first couple weeks so we will still end up with 15. Pick out 25, sweet they give a free chicken if you donate her eggs to someone, ok sure, ooohhhh there's an adopt me program, maybe just a couple of those too! So now we are up to 28 chicks, they arrive and I count them and there's a bonus chick, woohoo, 29 cute little chicks, I'm instantly in love. A friend calls and asks if I'll take one of her roosters, of coarse I have to save him and boy is he a handsome devil! Pick him up but the chicks are only a couple weeks and can't join him in the run and he's crowing like crazy, he's lonely

he needs a girlfriends

! Frantically search online for someone locally who had laying hens, go pick her up and see he has 2 hens, yes I must have them both. Go to a local fair and see 2 buff Cochins, fall in love and must have them, then someone had an ameracauna hen, I love colored eggs so I take her home too. So now I'm up to 35, but one chick died

so that's only 34, found out my 2 buff cochin hens were actually roosters, so now I need a couple more hens. Back online to find some local people, come home with 3 golden comets. 34+3=37, well 37 is such a weird number so maybe just a couple silkies, or 4, to round us out. 41 was our number but then I had another chick die suddenly, my poor little polish pullet

, then 2 more hens have passed away, and we had to send one buff cochin to the freezer, mean little bugger. So now I have 37 chickens, but only 2 hens are laying at the moment, actually only one because my RIR went broody a week ago and is sitting on 2 eggs, my other 2 hens aren't laying yet and my chicks are 10 weeks old and some are Roos so they don't count right? My silkies are only 5 1/2 months and I'm not sure of the sex yet so they don't count either. !!! Did I mention I went to pick up 4 Muscovy ducklings and came home with 9 and that next weekend is another fair where I plan to just "look" for another cochin hen

, which is perfectly fine since my math goes like this, 46 birds but only one hen laying and the rest either broody, not laying, chicks, roosters and the 9 ducklings are only 2 weeks old and I don't know the sexes yet, so I only have 1 chicken! Lucky for me my hubby loves me and my chicken math and just keeps expanding the coop and is going to build me an incubator soon too hahahaha! He calls me chicken mama now and he is quickly becoming chicken papa!

Roosters count 1/2 since they can make more chicks; broodies don't count while they aren't laying; bantams don't count because they are like invisible chickens; the chicks don't count because they are not laying...I'm not sure we have decided where ducks and turkeys fit in...hmm....

So it sounds like you have 2.5 including the roosters counting for 1/2...but that's still pretty good!