Chicken math - the subtraction success

Feeling good tonight. It is hard. You want to keep them all, but come the fall, they need to fit in your set up...and mine will.

• After the wreck, bought 4 old gals
• two broody hens, - 3 chicks 2 roosters and a pullet
  • one rooster - soup
  • 2nd rooster - Bye
• Spring 2022 - bought 25 assorted leghorns - split the order
  • 7 cockerels, and 5 pullets
• broody hen - hatched two mutts, added 5 colored egg laying chicks to the clutch 6 weeks old now.
• 24 birds.... too many. You can cheat in the summer, long days, short night, and most of my flock was not full grown
• leghorn are 3.5 months old, getting bigger, roos are getting rambunctious, even with nearly all day ranging, tension is rising
• Pulled 6 of the cockerels - bachelor pad, 2 days later much more relaxed in the laying flock
• tonight - sold 7 birds - 2 older hens, two leghorns, and 3 colored chicks and my second choice cockerel
• I now have 2 older birds, 3 leghorns, 4 colored chicks I think they will be laying before winter - should have 5-7 eggs a day through the winter.

Ridgerunner - years ago I was so surprised when you posted that you generally go through the winter with 8-9 hens, and feed your family. I thought you would have to have way more chickens to do that. But you really don't.

As all 24 were getting bigger, it was taking a lot more feed. The easiest way to reduce the feed bill is to reduce the number of birds you have.

So tonight, I pocket a little money for my hobby. I will have room to add more next year. Next week I will be harvesting 4 birds, and holding another 3 for a little longer.

It is a fun hobby, and more always seems like more fun, but while it was a bit of a rodeo getting them caught. I made another crazy chicken lady as happy as can be tonight, as she had a wreck, and now has chickens again.

Mrs K

Yes, sometimes you just have to subtract, or they would soon fill up your whole yard, garage, and house. Where would you sleep then? It's nice to be able to pocket a bit of money, and that could help to feed the one's that you end up keeping for the winter.

8 pullets 1 cockerel. 3 broody pullets that sat on 4 eggs each (they gotta fail being so young don't they???)

9 pullets 2 cockerels. Grow them out and eat the extras. Back down to 6 hens (sold two broody birds as broody, kept one) and 6 pullets from last year at start of spring. Same hen went broody..... and an 8 month old sexlink pullet (have RIR roo over bar rock) broody as anything. Gave them 6 and 4...... all ten hatch.

So how does this subtracting work? Asking for a friend.

And, while I enjoy a broody..... having multiple broody birds is a royal pain in the neck. Hopefully I can stick to two. Last 3 years I have raised 6 broody birds. 3 were from bar rock pullets from TSC. 3 were offspring of theirs (two BR and one sexlink so far) I swear my setup here at the place makes them go broody.

Good Job.

I'm trying to offload some spares right now too. I *might* have a buyer for Ludwig, who seems very interested but is uncomfortably non-committal about picking him up.

I ended up telling him/her flat out that I won't hold him without payment.

I did tell my friend, if the rooster I sent gets mean, I will take him back. She is to tenderhearted to make soup. And I will send Bye, as he is bomb proof, and good with little kids.

I wanted to keep Bye the next several months and see if he can raise up the eye candy with some manners.

I went down this morning, and really, I am going to have a wonderful flock going into winter. One bird 3 years old, one bird 1 year old, and 7 from this year. 2 roosters.

The EC rooster, is iffy at this point, but oh is he pretty.

Some butchering and canning up to do, but there are worse things than having homemade chicken soup ready to go.

Mrs K

Mrs. K said:

I did tell my friend, if the rooster I sent gets mean, I will take him back. She is to tenderhearted to make soup. And I will send Bye, as he is bomb proof, and good with little kids.

I wanted to keep Bye the next several months and see if he can raise up the eye candy with some manners.

I went down this morning, and really, I am going to have a wonderful flock going into winter. One bird 3 years old, one bird 1 year old, and 7 from this year. 2 roosters.

The EC rooster, is iffy at this point, but oh is he pretty.

Some butchering and canning up to do, but there are worse things than having homemade chicken soup ready to go.

Mrs K

Click to expand...

Hopefully Bye will raise up another good boy for you.

HumbleAmerican - measure and count! Overcrowding is expensive, cost extra in feed, and a lot of tension in the flock!

As easy as I make it sound, I have spent the last several weeks, thinking: 'ok, I will keep this one, no that one, hmm that one should go...maybe not, if I keep... that one can stay...go???"

I glad to be done thinking about it! And this morning, I went down, and THAT is a very nice little flock for me.

Mrs. K said:

HumbleAmerican - measure and count! Overcrowding is expensive, cost extra in feed, and a lot of tension in the flock!

As easy as I make it sound, I have spent the last several weeks, thinking: 'ok, I will keep this one, no that one, hmm that one should go...maybe not, if I keep... that one can stay...go???"

I glad to be done thinking about it! And this morning, I went down, and THAT is a very nice little flock for me.

Click to expand...

My balance is eggs. I use 10-12 young layers worth of eggs for my family. I crack and freeze them to get me through winter. I will go into winter this year with 2 broodies and fresh pullets. Depending on if they are laying (they should be) I will eat and cycle out the older ones. My issue is I HATE culling broodies. They are hard to come by in some dual-purpose birds. I have a hard time letting one go until I have 2. Then I'm OK. If something happens to one, hopefully, it doesn't happen to the other. This fall, my full intentions are 10-12 birds and a rooster. I have room for 25 to roost up comfortably as long as I free-range. 13 birds can be locked up indefinitely if needed. Chicken math the way it is..... I'm going to shoot for 10 layers and a rooster. This way I can keep 2 extra and still be within my goal.

You have to set the goal and reach for it. I made mine, and way ahead of schedule. I was saying to myself by September. I too kept Mrs. Feathers, a proven broody. A little age on her, I think she will be 4 next spring.

I too am expecting my pullets to keep me in eggs this winter. And in the past, froze eggs in the summer, but have you seen where you jar them up in lime? I am recovering from a wreck last summer, but next summer, I plan to jar some up and see.

Mrs K