Trust me, this way it is a lot easier to explain how you reached your final number.Ĭhicken math winds up being a combination of two things: You’ll know what feels right.įor a more scientific approach, use the method I describe. If you want to go REALLY simple, count all live chickens and divide by 2 or 3 or 5…sometimes 10. Obviously you can’t get down to zero chickens, then people will really think you are crazy. The way you reach your final number is going to be different for everybody. The Final Number of Chickens When Using Chicken Math These select few chickens, whether they are roosters or hens, have somehow wriggled their way into your heart and become pets. I’m of the opinion that when you give a chicken a name, it no longer counts when using chicken math. I didn’t name them, my daughter did, and they were absolutely pets. Both were extremely friendly New Hampshire Red hens. We all have those few chickens in the flock that have a name. Just like you don’t count visiting in-laws as part of your “household” number, chickens for sale don’t count towards your total chicken count. They’ll bring in a little bit of income and move on to their new home. Whether young pullets, laying hens or extra cockerels, anything that is for sale does not count when you are using chicken math. Many chicken farmers offer birds for sale. Of all the categories listed, your layers have earned premier status and do not count towards your total chicken count when you are using chicken math. Unlike chickens in other categories, these girls make themselves useful. They make food for your family and carry their own weight around the farm. Eggs from happy chickens where you know what their environment is like and you know what they eat. Your laying hens are usually why you got “into” chickens in the first place. Each of those three reasons is reason enough to determine that, when using chicken math, roosters don’t count. Roosters only exist on the farm for three purposes: Until they can be outside on their own without a heat lamp or their mom, they don’t count yet. They could be roosters, they could be sold, we don’t know yet. We don’t know if they are even going to stay.They are babies and we may lose a few before they reach adulthood.Here are a few of the most important ones: Subtract Any ChicksĬhicks don’t count toward a total chicken count for several valid reasons. Ultimately, they are on your farm to feed your family.īecause these meat chickens will be food, chicken math dictates that they are not included in your total chicken count. Yes, you have to feed them and sure, they need mealworms and their flock block because, after all, you are giving them the best life. Whether they are still chicks or almost fully grown, these birds are food. Meat chickens don’t count toward your total chicken count. All of the remaining categories are numbers we subtract from the total number of chickens. Now, you can adopt all of the mathematical principals at once, or use them one by one. This number does not include any birds you may have loaned out for breeding.This number does not include any chicks or chickens currently on order.This number does not include unhatched eggs.This is the total number of live chickens and chicks currently at home. You are only going to need this number once and then you’ll never use it again. Keep in mind that chicken math is still new to me so, I may have missed one or more categories. Using Chicken Math to Count Your ChickensĪlright, it’s time to start with the actual math. I even created a handy dandy infographic at the end of this post that you can use as a worksheet. It is these types of situations where having an understanding of chicken math can really help you out. Perhaps it’s not a specific number that raises a concern rather, you come home from the feed store once again with a few fluffy chicks and your spouse starts to ask questions like how many bags of feed are you buying a week and why there is wood and chicken wire in the back of the truck. Oh, and what about that broody hen that may or may not have hatched her clutch yet. You may start contemplating if you should count the chicks but wait, you can’t remember when you actually counted chicks. Suddenly, when friends and family ask you how many chickens you have, you start to feel weird because the number is like, 32 or 58. The Final Number of Chickens When Using Chicken MathĪt about 15 or so chickens, you will likely start to gradually see a necessity to use chicken math.Start with the Total Number of Chickens.Using Chicken Math to Count Your Chickens.
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