Why do so many of you buy so many chicks?

[Troyerchicks]

I was the same way: I wanted to order 5 chicks and that's it. I'm a city girl and have never ever had chickens or been around them but I wanted some fresh eggs and the idea of having my own chickens appealed to me. My husband, country boy, wanted 12-15 chickens. We are a family of 7 and we can go through a dozen eggs in one breakfast. He wanted to make sure we had enough. But he consented to my 5 because he knew I would be the one to raise them and didn't want me to become overwhelmed. Well, then I found this forum and since then I picked up 4 buff orpingtons and 2 bantam cochins. (one cochin was a gift and I thought she needed a friend) And next week? That original order of 5 chicks will be in. It's like an avalanche of chickens. It starts out as just one and then becomes many more before you know it.

 

[yoie]

you need to relearn chicken math...you can't count birds that don't lay...ordered birds don't count because you can't count your chickens before they hatch...seramas aren't really chickens...and i like bantams but them things is small so they really don't count...plus anything with a name doesn't count cuz it is family...see how I am going here...besides he said the limit was per pen...right? so obviously you need more birds

I thought I was getting the hang of the chicken math. I have no layers (yet), I am getting a few more at TSC, and the 19 chicks in the brooder all have names. Therefore I have no chickens. Yay.

Let the ordering begin!!​

 

[AHappychick]

like most of us you start with 5 and end up with 50 by the years end. Its like opening a bag of chips, once you start you just cant stop. lol I never intended to breed chickens I just could not stop myself.

It is great to start with 6 and if you want to stay at that number avoid BYC cause you will certainly want more if you stick around here lol

JK never avoid BYC

 

[jambunny]

I tell myself every year I will not get so many. Then oh my, I need to help keep a heritage breed going, oh but which one? Can't decide? Order a few breeds, eggs on BYC, gotta try my bator out again. lol. Cuz it is fun, I have the room, and I am obsessed with all kinds of poultry.

 

[perchie.girl]

4kids*2dogs :

I am new to all of this and I am just curious why so many people on BYC place orders for 25+ chicks? I only ordered 6 and I am so excited about these new little pets joining our family. I couldn't possibly imagine having any more than that . Should I expect many of them to die? What do you do with all of those chickens? Eat them? Sell them? Or do you keep that many for egg sales? Do you keep all of them for A long time? Or are there lots of farmers on here that have the space and patience for so many? It just seems like a lot to me.

Im new too here. Though I have had chickens before... This time I am purchasing my chicks from a breeder not a hatchery. Therefore the chicks will be straight run. The odds say I will get 50/50 males to females. Providing I can get my quantities up. The higher the quantity the better the odds will be 50/50. So the increments for packing in a shipping carton are 25. I am hoping that if I buy 50 I will get 25 males and 25 females. Now take that and divide it by three, (the three breeds that I want) and it is possible I wont get any females of any one breed. Sigh. I can only afford the fifty. Now I could go with a Hatchery and get the chicks sorted by sex. But there are no guarantees with a hatchery that I will get outstanding bloodlines. I dont want to show but I do want good consistent quality eggs and chicks. And hopefully maintain the quality of chicken as I go so there will be NO cross breeding.

Ideally I have it setup for ten hens and two roosters with enough room for more for each breed. Therefore I figured on keeping a Bachelor flock. I want Guineas too so the minimum purchase for guineas is 15-30 depending on where you buy them. So my guinea coop will be large enough to accomodate the bachelor roosters. I am still waivering emotionally about Doing the freezer thing. I have read up on how understand it how it works it will take someone experienced to show me how and guide me while I participate.

I defninately can and know how to dispatch if and when it becomes necessary to euthanize. That is different than dispatching for food.

So out of fifty I am hoping to get at least 30 females ten of each breed. I want to sell eggs for eating and hatching and I want to sell chicks on request. So we will see. I have alot to learn and I may find out in the long run I am not suited to this. I just hope to have fun along the way and learn alot.​

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

Quote:
double? you are thinking small...go for exponential growth!

Double's fairly accurate for the beginning... I have three pullets that are about 36 weeks old and I just went and bought four more chicks... Oops.

DH is building a whole new coop to fit everyone. At this point I'm just hoping no one turns rooish (I can't keep roos).

Thanks to the legal limit of ten though, I don't think we'll be getting any more. Between the new coop and the old, in theory we could house nine, but I'm not comfortable with that and I'm not going to try and make him build another coop next year. Sooo... Sad to say but I'm going to have an eye on the chicken laws and potential coop set ups next time we buy a house!

It will be a while, but eventually I WILL have that Polish... And a Welsummer... Possibly some ducks...

 

[chickie fam]

Quote:
What hatchery do you use? I'd love the excuse to order 25 at one go!!

Most hatcheries have a 25 minimum, which is why people order so many chickens to being with (OP).

Ideal, Cackle, McMurray, Mt. Healthy all require a 25 chick minimum.

I ordered from MPC and the minimum was 6 but I ordered 10 when the DH wasn't looking (he doesn't like having too many chicks at one go but doesn't care about how many chickens) Maybe next time I'll try Ideal or Mt. Healthy and then I gotta figure out my chicken math....

 

[AlienChick]

So when you guys keep ordering chicks at 10, 15 or 25+ at a time, do you have to keep building more coops?
So it would be a cycle of chicken-buying / coop building.
I plan on building an 8x12 shed turned coop.
That should house about 25 chickens comfortably (using the sq ft ratio).
So if I run out in a moment of weekness and buy another 25 chicks, I will have to build ANOTHER coop.
I'm just trying to get a visual image of a property with a bunch of coops all around.
What do you guys do?

 

[BarefootMom]

We have about 30 hens and I sell eggs. Out of 30 hens I get 12-18 eggs a day and most people want 3-4 dozen when they stop to buy eggs. So I need that many. We are soon ordering 75 chicks from cackle.--25 pullets and 50 fryers. I don't expect all of them to live. Chicks die. Chickens die. There are many predators even if you have the best coop-but you can't keep them locked up forever. Sometimes they just get sick and die. It is just a fact of life. I don't live in town though adn they have a large area to free range.

 

[Caddy-Corner-Chick]

With my first chicken, well there was one, then I added 2 more, then I added 5 more, ...... Now is time to start over.

Originally I was only going to get 4 or 5, but hubby said why not 25 ??? He gave me his shed to convert and I placed the order.

What am I going to do with all those eggs??

Sell them of course, oh and give some away.... bless my closest relatives with fresh eggs and my favorite part would be eating them.

Yummy!!

Egg Salad, Fried Egg sandwich, cake, french toast, meatloaf, and the list goes on and on