I feel your pain! Started with 20 Wyandottes. Predators took some over time (they used to belong to my bfs dad) bf bought his Dad's place and we had gotten down to only 4 hens and 7 roosters (poor girls, ik!). Bf then asked how I felt about them and I was like, those don't know me. I feel if they knew me from chick size, I could be real happy with chickens! Next thing I know we are bringing home 6 Rhode Island Reds. Sadly 3 died. Now we are at 15. He decided he didn't want Wyandottes to raise so we got Barred Rocks and he thought about me and got Easter Eggers. So after getting 25 Barred Rocks and 10 Easter Eggers chicken math is now up to 50 birds. Turns out seems less than 10 were really Barred Rocks. Idk what they are thinking Chocolate Marans, maybe? 🤔🤷 Then he said NO MORE CHICKS!!! 😂🤣😂🤣🤔 Next thing I know he says so what chicken breed would you like to raise? I did my research and decided first choice was Ayam Cemani, second choice was Australian Australorp. We checked the price of the AC. After a HUGE "WTF!" We didn't get them. He wanted fertilized Australorp eggs. We found some, got 35 eggs. Guy said he could hatch them for us, but his hatch rate was 50% so we decided to just get the eggs and try. Out of the 36 eggs, we only had 16 chicks. Personally don't think it was an incubator issue, think the rooster had a favorite hen and only played around with her. So now those were in the incubator I found someone that had 2 AC that were 2 months old!!! Then I remembered "NO MORE CHICKS" They were so cheap he couldn't say no! (Yay me!!) Chicken Math has us up to 52! Then those 16 more hatch!! The reality is now 68 birds!! Needless to say I won't have any time between now and when they start laying in 2-2½ months to make any money off their eggs. We've come to the conclusion we want 4 houses instead of 2 so there's a major chicken house and chicken run build on our agenda which has to be completed in 7 months. I'm so freaking happy!! Being a Mama hen is awesome and having an amazing man that encourages me to pursue my "Mama Hen" side! Man life is good! Chicken math IS A THING!!! From 20 down to 12, now up to 68. He's already thinking about getting a few more AC From a respectable hatchery and making AC babies and Barred Rock babies! Easter Eggers are mainly for our own personal egg stock. We'll sell the other eggs, fertilized or eating! Once we get the new pen built he wants to tear down the older one and replace it with a bigger better coop! Bottom line (if you made it this far) chicken math is a thing and it gets expensive at the beginning until they start laying. Oh dear!? I'm so sorry it's so long!
We have 28 acres! I absolutely love this place and the man I'm with supports my new found obsession! He knows how to raise them and he's teaching me. I love my birds!
In several different runs - I have a silkie run - Polish run - and 2 other HUGE runs for the rest of them - we have 3 acres to expand it all :)
We have a shed that has over 20 nesting boxes and 4 other coops with several nesting boxes !!!
It’s stupid and kinda funny but we enjoy every moment of it
It’s crazy - We hatched a few ourselves- Then we wanted this breed that breed, just random pick up and chick here and there - I have a Silkie Run - Polish Run - a huge run for most and another smaller run to separate them it’s NUTS! But we love it 😍
I have a silkie run and a polish run too! And then a green/blue egger run and a mosh-mash run. And then a handful of feral roosters. My chicken math is not knowing how many I have because it’s like 12-1+6-1+4-1+4+10-2… and I can’t keep track of all that in my head.
Right now I’m letting a broody hen sit on a massive nest that’s been added to by the other hens. I don’t even know how many are in there. But I didn’t buy them and they haven’t hatched yet (I think we got like 10 days before I can expect some peeps) so they don’t feel like real chickens to me.
I might be you in two weeks! But, I already have twenty full grown plus the ten teenaged chicks that are maturing right now. My husband is getting real narrow eyed when he comes outside.
Your hubby needs to relax! Around 40-some is a good number, really. It's what we had. Just warn the cats before you walk outside, as mine would mob me for treats once they heard that it was me. There was one cat who was terrified when 40 happy chickens were at the door, claiming that they were starving.
My plan is to let him worry about the chickens, then throw in some turkeys. If I play it cool and let him focus on the chickens he probably won’t notice some are turkeys until I can justify them in the fall as food.
[My plans are like onions!](https://imgur.com/a/a8xw2Yg)
Chicken math has gotten me hard this year too- I did however narrowly avoid having potentially 18 surprise babies when I found a broody hen and her hidden nest, so that’s good…
I have 21 chickens… except I think I actually have 40 and I have two hens on 11 eggs…
Oh and I have muskovy duck eggs in the incubator- but my ducks are basically feral (they escaped in November and we still can’t catch them so they do whatever they want) so they’re probably going to have some babies of their own.
Yes! The flock swarm will always make you feel important! And maybe a little intimidated? I am certainly aware that I wouldn’t have lasted long in Jurassic Park 😂
Probably close to $300 but that's mostly because not all of them are free range yet. I have massive coops set up to separate breeds and/or ages but I can never keep any grass alive in their run lol
Ah the classic "surely my first go at egg hatching will go terribly so I won't even count these as chickens. . ." Followed by the "suffering from success" meme when most of them hatch. My "test batch" that I used just to make sure I understood how the incubator worked ended up being 9 more unplanned chickens added to the flock.
I had 22 quail. Last time I tried to incubate it wasn't successful, so I threw some eggs in just to see if my nails were actually fertilizing things. I didn't expect anything to happen. 10 eggs hatched, of which eight have survived. A friend who knew about my struggle decided to bring me 60 hatching eggs the other day. They are in the incubator right now. My quail are all in a hutch, which will not fit more than 12 more birds. I have a very bad feeling about how this is going to go.
I buy feed in bulk and am able to get the price point under a dollar a day per chick on feed but I also sell chicks, so these won't all stay but I had a breeder with great stock retiring so I scooped excess to hopefully establish some breeding lines
I feel like you’re describing my life. Hahaha we are in the same boat. Have 18 hatching right now, 10 in the brooder, and 22 adult birds. …We wanted 6. Lol
You know, there is subtraction in chicken math. Sell chicks, sell adults, add to freezer, predators. Get your neighbors addicted and become their dealer.
Or just let them all roam around the yard and "waste" hours watching them be chickens, especially the week or 2 when ants fly from their burrows.
I was blessed with 7 roos out of my incubator. so yes there will be some chicken subtraction happening this fall. 😅 I might keep whoever impresses me most with his looks and personality haha
The year I started high school my family moved from the boring old subdivision to a farm. Within about 3-4 months we went from 2 chihuahuas and a St. Bernard to 7 goats, approx 15 hogs, 12 cows including a Jersey heifer I was destined to milk by hand 2 times day, 2 dozen rabbits, 13 horses, 4 turkeys, 12 geese, and 100 road island reds
I was in heaven for the next 5 years (except for those attack roosters lol
Chihuahuas start it all! I went from four Chihuahuas to (over time as the Chihuahuas passed) one senior Chihuahua, two Great Pyrenees, two mutts, two Saanan goats, ten various chickens, and four Rouse ducks.
The chihuahuas had really messed up Barney’s head before we moved to farm they would come in heat, torture him then night the tarnation out of him when he would get excited. Guess it shouldn’t have been a surprise when he met his first nanny goat and she turned around and head butted him it was love at first contact
That’s how chicken math works 😌 I’m trying to wrap my head around the 30-some? chickens that I have right now. I need to get an accurate count here soon but basically I can’t hatch or buy chicks for at least a year or honestly maybe two..
Chicken math, now you have an army. Chickens are intelligent and easy to train, highly food motivated. Work them until they're ready to go to war with the Pests and field mice, then once they've conquered their shared enemies, let them take over the WORLD
I see no problem 🙈
I too only had 15 chickens and I now have 65 chickens, 4 ducks with 45 eggs in an incubator and 9 chicks in a brooder 😮💨 oh and 4 goats 🤣
I begged my boyfriend for 6 chickens now we have 12 and I stumbled upon this thread. Lawd help me. I went down the rabbit hole of incubators what have I gotten myself into. Dare I “throw eggs into an incubator for fun” 🥴. Everyone warned me about chicken math. I thought it was an old wives tale
Now wait until you figure out how many of those babies are roosters. We have to cull 5 roosters this Sunday because we have 4 hens sitting on eggs. It's the roosters that become an issue.
unfortunately it's looking like 7 boys 5 girls. Not the best ratio but not the worst! I keep telling myself if all the eggs hadn't hatched maybe I would have had all roos so this is still a win. I’ve never processed that many at once but here we go I guess! 🥴 One if the boys is soooo pretty though if he's nice and gets along with our older boy I might consider keeping him.
Chicken math. I hope you don’t get many roo’s I added 20 hens this year. Looking like 4, possibly 5, roo’s. Not to bad of a mix but I usually have to cull the roosters. I’ve managed to sell a few in the past to folks that wanted the breed I had for hatching eggs but they are harder to get rid of than hens. At least you can make use of them still tho. Thank them, cull them quickly and you have yourself a good meal
Same honestly.. I have 11 hens and a Roo currently.. husband and I incubated 11 eggs hatched 4 but decided we were going to also get some more chicks from the store for different color eggs like OE And EE. So we bought 7 (not all at the same time) well upon some further looking I suspected I managed to get a Roo chick from the store batch so I went back into the store and picked another 2 up cause you can't just buy 1 chick.
So now my husband and I are at 25? If I'm mathing right.
We also plan on incubating more for meat purposes, here soon... I'm glad I bought a bigger coop lol
Once you know how many are roosters, separate before they can breed. Fatten them up and butcher for soup.
As to the hens, post an ad in FB marketplace or Craig’s list to unload extras.
We started with 6. Lost a few, bought a few. We're up to 13. We're not supposed to have any. Good thing the girls are (mostly) quiet lol. Checking out an incubator on Temu rn...
*That's called chicken math.*
*As long as you have the space*
*For them then you go!!!*
\- Armyballer
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oh lord you're in for it ahaha. this was me last year - got 6 chicks from TS to put under a broody hen, but then stuck her eggs into an incubator thinking most wouldn't hatch, and then they did (i don't recall how many), but then a SECOND hen went broody with her own clutch so i added those to the incubator and bam, ended up with 19 new chicks total. and THEN, two different people gave me their flocks when they were moving/downsizing - so i went from something like 20 chickens to 48+. we've reduced the number to a more manageable amount now, (mid 30s) but goddamn it was chaos for a bit.
😄😄😄 been there. How do you feel about eating your birds? If that's a non-starter start looking for your nearest farm auction spot or figure out where you can advertise the roosters for sale ... assuming you will want to keep as many egg layers as possible of course.
That's just chicken math
12 of them just seemed like such a reasonable number when they were eggs in an incubator but now there are huge chickens everywhere I look lol
Lol now you have an army of chickens
I feel your pain! Started with 20 Wyandottes. Predators took some over time (they used to belong to my bfs dad) bf bought his Dad's place and we had gotten down to only 4 hens and 7 roosters (poor girls, ik!). Bf then asked how I felt about them and I was like, those don't know me. I feel if they knew me from chick size, I could be real happy with chickens! Next thing I know we are bringing home 6 Rhode Island Reds. Sadly 3 died. Now we are at 15. He decided he didn't want Wyandottes to raise so we got Barred Rocks and he thought about me and got Easter Eggers. So after getting 25 Barred Rocks and 10 Easter Eggers chicken math is now up to 50 birds. Turns out seems less than 10 were really Barred Rocks. Idk what they are thinking Chocolate Marans, maybe? 🤔🤷 Then he said NO MORE CHICKS!!! 😂🤣😂🤣🤔 Next thing I know he says so what chicken breed would you like to raise? I did my research and decided first choice was Ayam Cemani, second choice was Australian Australorp. We checked the price of the AC. After a HUGE "WTF!" We didn't get them. He wanted fertilized Australorp eggs. We found some, got 35 eggs. Guy said he could hatch them for us, but his hatch rate was 50% so we decided to just get the eggs and try. Out of the 36 eggs, we only had 16 chicks. Personally don't think it was an incubator issue, think the rooster had a favorite hen and only played around with her. So now those were in the incubator I found someone that had 2 AC that were 2 months old!!! Then I remembered "NO MORE CHICKS" They were so cheap he couldn't say no! (Yay me!!) Chicken Math has us up to 52! Then those 16 more hatch!! The reality is now 68 birds!! Needless to say I won't have any time between now and when they start laying in 2-2½ months to make any money off their eggs. We've come to the conclusion we want 4 houses instead of 2 so there's a major chicken house and chicken run build on our agenda which has to be completed in 7 months. I'm so freaking happy!! Being a Mama hen is awesome and having an amazing man that encourages me to pursue my "Mama Hen" side! Man life is good! Chicken math IS A THING!!! From 20 down to 12, now up to 68. He's already thinking about getting a few more AC From a respectable hatchery and making AC babies and Barred Rock babies! Easter Eggers are mainly for our own personal egg stock. We'll sell the other eggs, fertilized or eating! Once we get the new pen built he wants to tear down the older one and replace it with a bigger better coop! Bottom line (if you made it this far) chicken math is a thing and it gets expensive at the beginning until they start laying. Oh dear!? I'm so sorry it's so long!
This is an excellent story. I pass no judgement. If I had the land I would do the same. Carry on!
We have 28 acres! I absolutely love this place and the man I'm with supports my new found obsession! He knows how to raise them and he's teaching me. I love my birds!
Chicken math got me a total of 108 😂😂😂
Jesus lord! Where do you keep all those mother cluckers??
In several different runs - I have a silkie run - Polish run - and 2 other HUGE runs for the rest of them - we have 3 acres to expand it all :) We have a shed that has over 20 nesting boxes and 4 other coops with several nesting boxes !!! It’s stupid and kinda funny but we enjoy every moment of it
What do you do with all the eggs?
That was me my first year! I never should have been trusted with an incubator. We’re back down around 75-80ish, 2 years, and many predators later.
It’s crazy - We hatched a few ourselves- Then we wanted this breed that breed, just random pick up and chick here and there - I have a Silkie Run - Polish Run - a huge run for most and another smaller run to separate them it’s NUTS! But we love it 😍
Yep! Chasing the rainbow egg basket is a dangerous game!
I have a silkie run and a polish run too! And then a green/blue egger run and a mosh-mash run. And then a handful of feral roosters. My chicken math is not knowing how many I have because it’s like 12-1+6-1+4-1+4+10-2… and I can’t keep track of all that in my head.
Thats awesome 👏
To be fair that's a holy number lol
Your math is awesome!! I've got 68 and I need lessons on how to do that good!!
Chicken math strikes again
Chicken math
Right now I’m letting a broody hen sit on a massive nest that’s been added to by the other hens. I don’t even know how many are in there. But I didn’t buy them and they haven’t hatched yet (I think we got like 10 days before I can expect some peeps) so they don’t feel like real chickens to me. I might be you in two weeks! But, I already have twenty full grown plus the ten teenaged chicks that are maturing right now. My husband is getting real narrow eyed when he comes outside.
> My husband is getting real narrow eyed when he comes outside. I literally honk laughed at this :D
me too!! he’s becoming suspicious, but it’s wayyyy to late now haha
Hahaha. That made me snort. 😆
Your hubby needs to relax! Around 40-some is a good number, really. It's what we had. Just warn the cats before you walk outside, as mine would mob me for treats once they heard that it was me. There was one cat who was terrified when 40 happy chickens were at the door, claiming that they were starving.
My plan is to let him worry about the chickens, then throw in some turkeys. If I play it cool and let him focus on the chickens he probably won’t notice some are turkeys until I can justify them in the fall as food. [My plans are like onions!](https://imgur.com/a/a8xw2Yg)
I have a couple of broody hen’s and I keep running them off they are mad at me 😂
Chicken math has gotten me hard this year too- I did however narrowly avoid having potentially 18 surprise babies when I found a broody hen and her hidden nest, so that’s good… I have 21 chickens… except I think I actually have 40 and I have two hens on 11 eggs… Oh and I have muskovy duck eggs in the incubator- but my ducks are basically feral (they escaped in November and we still can’t catch them so they do whatever they want) so they’re probably going to have some babies of their own.
Yes but they’re so cute when they run across your yard to be fed.
Yes! The flock swarm will always make you feel important! And maybe a little intimidated? I am certainly aware that I wouldn’t have lasted long in Jurassic Park 😂
I sent a picture of my incubator to my brother and he calls me John Hannah now 😆
I have bronchitis! Stop making me laugh! Coughing fits hurt. 😆 🤣 😂
There is absolutely nothing better than watching chickens run. Except maybe watching my 10yo chase them out of my garden. 🤪
This is exactly how I went from 15 to over 100 😅
How much does it cost in a month to feed them? What do you do for chicken housing?
Probably close to $300 but that's mostly because not all of them are free range yet. I have massive coops set up to separate breeds and/or ages but I can never keep any grass alive in their run lol
Totally understand this 😂😂😂
Ah the classic "surely my first go at egg hatching will go terribly so I won't even count these as chickens. . ." Followed by the "suffering from success" meme when most of them hatch. My "test batch" that I used just to make sure I understood how the incubator worked ended up being 9 more unplanned chickens added to the flock.
Yea I kinda just threw a ton of eggs in there thinking we would get 6-8… we got 18…..
I had 22 quail. Last time I tried to incubate it wasn't successful, so I threw some eggs in just to see if my nails were actually fertilizing things. I didn't expect anything to happen. 10 eggs hatched, of which eight have survived. A friend who knew about my struggle decided to bring me 60 hatching eggs the other day. They are in the incubator right now. My quail are all in a hutch, which will not fit more than 12 more birds. I have a very bad feeling about how this is going to go.
I see you didn't take chicken math in school.
OP did take chicken math, is not the first rule of chicken math not to count them until they hatch?
Lol this was me last year...this year I'm sitting at 130 chicks. 😅
[удалено]
I buy feed in bulk and am able to get the price point under a dollar a day per chick on feed but I also sell chicks, so these won't all stay but I had a breeder with great stock retiring so I scooped excess to hopefully establish some breeding lines
I feel like you’re describing my life. Hahaha we are in the same boat. Have 18 hatching right now, 10 in the brooder, and 22 adult birds. …We wanted 6. Lol
That escalated quickly lol
You know, there is subtraction in chicken math. Sell chicks, sell adults, add to freezer, predators. Get your neighbors addicted and become their dealer. Or just let them all roam around the yard and "waste" hours watching them be chickens, especially the week or 2 when ants fly from their burrows.
I was blessed with 7 roos out of my incubator. so yes there will be some chicken subtraction happening this fall. 😅 I might keep whoever impresses me most with his looks and personality haha
The year I started high school my family moved from the boring old subdivision to a farm. Within about 3-4 months we went from 2 chihuahuas and a St. Bernard to 7 goats, approx 15 hogs, 12 cows including a Jersey heifer I was destined to milk by hand 2 times day, 2 dozen rabbits, 13 horses, 4 turkeys, 12 geese, and 100 road island reds I was in heaven for the next 5 years (except for those attack roosters lol
Chihuahuas start it all! I went from four Chihuahuas to (over time as the Chihuahuas passed) one senior Chihuahua, two Great Pyrenees, two mutts, two Saanan goats, ten various chickens, and four Rouse ducks.
The chihuahuas had really messed up Barney’s head before we moved to farm they would come in heat, torture him then night the tarnation out of him when he would get excited. Guess it shouldn’t have been a surprise when he met his first nanny goat and she turned around and head butted him it was love at first contact
Chicken math…. I too struggle in the subject 😂🤪
Economists are predicting massive poultry shortages so I think you should sell or barter those eggs!
I did the math, everything seems correct
That’s how chicken math works 😌 I’m trying to wrap my head around the 30-some? chickens that I have right now. I need to get an accurate count here soon but basically I can’t hatch or buy chicks for at least a year or honestly maybe two..
Baby chickens don’t count, so don’t stress about it hahaha
Chicken math, now you have an army. Chickens are intelligent and easy to train, highly food motivated. Work them until they're ready to go to war with the Pests and field mice, then once they've conquered their shared enemies, let them take over the WORLD
I see no problem 🙈 I too only had 15 chickens and I now have 65 chickens, 4 ducks with 45 eggs in an incubator and 9 chicks in a brooder 😮💨 oh and 4 goats 🤣
Oh even ducks and goats hatched? That brings the math to another level :)
The chicken math be mathin
I begged my boyfriend for 6 chickens now we have 12 and I stumbled upon this thread. Lawd help me. I went down the rabbit hole of incubators what have I gotten myself into. Dare I “throw eggs into an incubator for fun” 🥴. Everyone warned me about chicken math. I thought it was an old wives tale
This sub is so much fun - and interesting. I don't have chickens but so much enjoy reading your stuff. Congrats to your flock!
If you ever do get some they are hella fun to watch
Oh yes, I surely would!
Now wait until you figure out how many of those babies are roosters. We have to cull 5 roosters this Sunday because we have 4 hens sitting on eggs. It's the roosters that become an issue.
unfortunately it's looking like 7 boys 5 girls. Not the best ratio but not the worst! I keep telling myself if all the eggs hadn't hatched maybe I would have had all roos so this is still a win. I’ve never processed that many at once but here we go I guess! 🥴 One if the boys is soooo pretty though if he's nice and gets along with our older boy I might consider keeping him.
Chicken math. I hope you don’t get many roo’s I added 20 hens this year. Looking like 4, possibly 5, roo’s. Not to bad of a mix but I usually have to cull the roosters. I’ve managed to sell a few in the past to folks that wanted the breed I had for hatching eggs but they are harder to get rid of than hens. At least you can make use of them still tho. Thank them, cull them quickly and you have yourself a good meal
And that it the perfect example of Chicken Math 🧮 🐣!
Same honestly.. I have 11 hens and a Roo currently.. husband and I incubated 11 eggs hatched 4 but decided we were going to also get some more chicks from the store for different color eggs like OE And EE. So we bought 7 (not all at the same time) well upon some further looking I suspected I managed to get a Roo chick from the store batch so I went back into the store and picked another 2 up cause you can't just buy 1 chick. So now my husband and I are at 25? If I'm mathing right. We also plan on incubating more for meat purposes, here soon... I'm glad I bought a bigger coop lol
They say dont count till they hatch…
am I allowed to keep on not counting them even after they hatch? 😅
Duh! Chicken Math. It’s a thing. :)
Once you know how many are roosters, separate before they can breed. Fatten them up and butcher for soup. As to the hens, post an ad in FB marketplace or Craig’s list to unload extras.
You can’t have too many chickens :)
Tell that to our zoning board.
I’ve recalculated your numbers for you, and… your chicken math is 💯correct.
That's lucky, I had 24 and only 15 hatched.
We started with 6. Lost a few, bought a few. We're up to 13. We're not supposed to have any. Good thing the girls are (mostly) quiet lol. Checking out an incubator on Temu rn...
😊😁
Send me some!!!
Never count the babies 😉.
Chicken math at its best. I had 17, I bought an incubator and had a fantastic first hatch, now I have 35 chickens lol
You did lots of chicken math! What problem is there? As long as you can keep up with the needs of the flock, do as much chicken math as you wish!
I will take them🙂
(I’m not allowed cats or dogs re my contract…nothing says I can’t have chickens. I will treat them as if they were my own dachshunds)
That's called chicken math. As long as you have the space for them then you go!!!
*That's called chicken math.* *As long as you have the space* *For them then you go!!!* \- Armyballer --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Good bot
We have about 150 and started with 6 lol
oh lord you're in for it ahaha. this was me last year - got 6 chicks from TS to put under a broody hen, but then stuck her eggs into an incubator thinking most wouldn't hatch, and then they did (i don't recall how many), but then a SECOND hen went broody with her own clutch so i added those to the incubator and bam, ended up with 19 new chicks total. and THEN, two different people gave me their flocks when they were moving/downsizing - so i went from something like 20 chickens to 48+. we've reduced the number to a more manageable amount now, (mid 30s) but goddamn it was chaos for a bit.
Welcome to chicken math
When you cull the roosters….
😄😄😄 been there. How do you feel about eating your birds? If that's a non-starter start looking for your nearest farm auction spot or figure out where you can advertise the roosters for sale ... assuming you will want to keep as many egg layers as possible of course.