I've got my very first flock in the brooder now, but knew a bit about chicken math from the backyard chickens my parents raised when I was a kid. So I was resigned to the fact that this would happen before we ever went to look.
I needed some pest control for my garden. I love chickens and planned to get those, but Husband said we should get ducks instead since they don't scratch and won't destroy the garden like chickens will. He's right, of course, so we agree on two chicks and two ducks. We go to
TSC on a Saturday to pick out our babies, but all they have left are bantams. They tell us they get their babies on Wednesday, and those sell out very quickly. But Husband falls in love with one of the bantams so he gets that one, I pick out my favorite, and we throw in a third for good measure, since she had pasty butt that needed attention. Of course, bantams don't count and there's a chance they'll all be roos anyway, so we don't have any chicks yet.
While waiting for their next shipment to arrive, I research breeds and decide I want at least one EE. They'd had a bin of "Americauna" last week, so I expected them to have them again. But Wednesday rolls around, and all they get are sex link pullets and ducks. So I get our two ducks and two of the sex links and I'm on my way, happy that we definitely escaped chicken math this year.
When I get home, I lament to Husband that they didn't have any EEs and that I should have driven out to the hardware store the next town over instead of getting the sex links. He encourages me to go get one anyway and the next day I proudly leave the hardware store with
ONE EE pullet.
Still doing well, right? We manage a full nine days without buying any new birds (even survived one trip to
TSC for cat food!), until I run out of chick feed. Tried to go to
TSC in the afternoon, but the car breaks down on the way and I have to wait until Husband is off work to take the good car. This means that we arrive an hour before closing on the last day of chick days. Fate, I tell you! All that's left in the entire store are two Pekin ducklings, and the employees that are sitting by the tank pounce as soon as we walk up to look. They beg us to take them for 25¢ each, and offer to throw in the feeders & waterers that they'd used in the tanks for free, along with some feed coupons. We needed that stuff anyway, so of course we couldn't pass up that deal!
So four has become ten, but it looks like two of our bantams are roos and two of our ducks are drakes, so we'll have to get rid of all but one drake. That will leave us with 7, where we can legally have 6. The bantam pullet is really only a third of a chicken, so it rounds to six.
Not too bad yet, but we're already talking about moving out of the city so we can have space for a larger flock! Chicken math really doesn't start until you have to sell your house.
