Chicken Math

Everyone who has ever thought about getting chickens has surely done their research for months and months before actually bringing them home. (No? Hmmm...maybe that's just me, then.... Type A personality strikes again!) Regardless, most people have found out where to get chicks from (local breeders, mail order, farm supply store, etc). They have looked into how to build (or buy) a safe coop. They've read up on the benefits of different chicken keeping practices (free ranging, paddocks, confined to a run, etc). They found out what kind of food to feed them, what first aid supplies to have on hand, and how long they need to be inside in a brooder (kind of like a heated daycare) until they are big enough (and feathered enough) to go outside. However, there is one thing that I had briefly seen in passing, but skimmed right on by during those months of research - and it's a doozy. Two words....Chicken math.

It kind of goes like this: If farmer A has 4 people in his family and wants to have enough chickens to supply his family members 1 egg each per day, how many chickens does he need? Answer: 28 chickens…never mind that that would equal somewhere around 98 eggs a day...you can basically never have too many, right?!?

Here's how our chicken math went down. We decided our goal was to have 6-8 hens…you know, somewhere in the window of 2 dozen eggs a week…enough for us and maybe a little to share. So, the day came to go pick up our chicks (at the local breeder I had tracked down).  Let's just say, we walked out with 2 different breeds of chickens: 10 (yes, I said 10) English Orpington's and 2 (yep, 2 more - see what I mean about chicken math?) Breda's. We were so excited to take our new (dozen!) fluffy butts home. They were so adorable! See?

Our first babies and brooder

The expanded "Chick Condo" as they started needing more room

What's that?!? You counted the chicks and you swear you saw 13? Not 12? Yep...somehow we AND the breeder miscounted. We actually took home 11 Orpington's (a mixture of black, blue, black cuckoo and blue cuckoo) and 2 Breda's (one blue, one splash).

Well, it was fine, we decided. We enjoyed having them around and John decided it was a great time to start early and teach the boys to pick up chicks...

One of the Orpington chicks

Dilly, one of the Breda chicks

We were definitely surprised about the extra chicken, but no worries, right? Maybe we would just sell the extra eggs, because, of course, we should have lots of ladies, right? WRONG! As the chickens continued to grow, a large portion of them began making us question their gender (with chickens, unless you are an experienced chicken sexer - and I mean really experienced...you can actually kill them trying to sex them if you don't know what you are doing- or the breed has sex-linked characteristics like color,  you can't tell what they are until later on). We, however, were in complete denial...I mean, so MANY of them have bright red combs and wattles...surely, they are just early developing hens...right?

Notice the dark red combs and wattles... 

Another attempt at picking up chick(en)....but this guy is definitely a cockerel (young rooster).

This one is really a lady chick (Mama)...but she isn't ready to be tied down yet, apparently!

This lovely, black cuckoo Orpington cockerel we named a long time ago...Sissy - oops! Now he's determined to prove us wrong - he's one of our more assertive gents!

As we were hiding behind our denial of how many roosters we had, we also decided that it would be a good idea to raise broilers this year in a chicken tractor. So, in the midst of building a coop, we stopped and built a chicken tractor (a moveable chicken housing unit) for more chickens. We, again, did our research and decided what we wanted Cornish Cross to start with as they are supposed to be the best meat chickens. We ordered another 15 (see what's happening here?!? Chicken math at work) with a local farm (who would later process them for us) and brought them home. Our chicken count was up to 28 - man, that happened fast!!

A few weeks later, we finally consulted someone much more experienced with chickens than us who confirmed that, yes, we ended up with quite a few roosters. How many, you ask? Well, out of the original 13 chicks, 8 were roosters. Yup...we only got 5 hens out of 13. So, what did we do? Bought more hens, of course!

Latte, our Chocolate Cuckoo Orpington (excuse the mess...we are still under construction).

Girlkin (aka Girlie) - our Blue Breda pullet, Mocha (or "Chocolate" as the boys call her) - our chocolate Orpington, and, with his back to us, Gherkin, our Blue Breda cockerel (the only rooster we currently plan on keeping).

Sunshine, our splash Breda

We ended up adding 4 more pullets (young female chickens).  We got these as older chicks because, well, we clearly have too many roosters and didn't want to chance it again. We got 2 more Breda's because we love their temperament so much and 2 more Orpington's. The count was up to 31!*  (It would have been 32, but, sadly, we lost one of the Cornish Cross the first night home). So, that my friends, is how chicken math works...plan for 6-8, end up with 31! Consider yourself warned....



*Our current chicken count is 17...the broilers have headed to freezer camp.

Finding Home

My husband, John, grew up on 10 acres (with hundreds of nearby unused acres to explore)….and, the first several years of our marriage were spent in an apartment, townhouse, or subdivision. So, when we began house hunting over 2 years ago for a place to raise our two boys, you can imagine that the tiny postage stamp lots of today's new houses simply weren't going to cut it for him. And, as we continued to look, I knew that wasn't what I wanted either. Simply put - we wanted privacy (I was tired of feeling like I could reach out my bathroom window and borrow my neighbors soap, haha!) We wanted a place for our boys to learn and explore and a place where we could create a more sustainable life for ourselves.

Our realtor (amazing, by the way!!) painstakingly looked with us at countless properties over the last 2 years. We were hunting for that "perfect property"- one that we could see ourselves in indefinitely. High on the list of "must haves" was a place where we could garden and have chickens (a necessity with a 5 year old who eats 4+ eggs without blinking!) and the space for other potential animals. We crossed several houses off the list because they were too small, too outdated, too neglected, too expensive, too far from work, too weird of a layout (I mean, seriously….who wants to have a toilet by itself in a closet with a sink down the hall IN a bedroom?!? So strange!!)

When circumstances earlier this summer pushed the house hunt into overdrive, we hunted relentlessly with our realtor (did I mention she was awesome?!!?) until we came across this property. It crossed off almost every item on our wish list: a large yard for the boys to play, space for chickens and other animals, privacy, livable as is (although we definitely have some updates to do), and plenty of space for our family to live. Sooooo, long story made short, we placed an offer on this house (and almost 8 acres!) and it was accepted! We had found our home.

Check out the big backyard!! The boys were soooo excited! 

We would love for you to join us as we share a little about our adventures in our new home! Keep your eyes out for more posts about things like raising chickens, gardening, homeschooling, and updating our home one room at a time! Welcome to Peck Place Farm!