Chicken Math 4+5=60?

The Chick Inn, established 2020

Five years ago, I received a chicken coop for Christmas. My first chicken coop was called "The Chick Inn" and was big enough to hold four to six chickens. I bought Speedy, Shark Bite, Peggy Sue, and "Winner Winner Chicken Dinner" at the Tractor Supply to start my flock.

Three months after I established my coop, the pandemic hit. Chickens were the BEST mental therapy for me and my family. While I homeschooled my kids that year, chickens gave us an opportunity to learn something new and spend a lot of time outside. It took the edge off the uncertainty of the pandemic.

A couple months later, Peggy Sue and "Winner Winner Chicken Dinner" (turns out that's a TERRIBLE name for a chicken) disappeared one afternoon while they were free ranging in the woods. I'm assuming a raccoon got them based on the amount of feathers I found and no bodies. I was devastated that two of my new "babies" were hurt on my watch. Not wanting to have Shark Bite and Speedy be alone in The Chick Inn, especially during the winter months, I immediately went to Tractor Supply and came back with five more babies.

Speedy, the Bully

Once I had seven chickens in my coop, it seemed a bit overcrowded and uncomfortable, especially for Ms. Speedy....the leader of the pecking order. She thought the entire coop belonged to her and didn't want to share it with newest members of the flock. I needed a bigger coop.

I started searching for my next coop on Facebook Marketplace. The man who sold me the coop was a carpenter who built it himself. He built this coop better than most homes are built. How do I know this coop could withstand the horrific winds of a tornado with zero damage? Because of my hillbilly husband.

The new coop that rolled to the perfect spot in our yard.

While moving this heavy coop to its new location, my husband decided to use his little green tractor (I mean his BIG, MANLY John Deere Tractor) to lift the coop and drive it across our really bumpy front yard. He was driving with a bit more enthusiasm than necessary (Because of his Big, Important Tractor) and hit a bump which made my new coop roll over and over and over again across my front yard. Not a scratch on the thing! It was pretty hilarious, because the coop rolled exactly to the location where it has stayed put till this very day.

Because I had two coops....one that could provide room and board to six chickens and another that could have ten, I could have a teensy weensy bit more chickens.

Justification: More Chickens=More Eggs. Here's how my chicken math went....

4-2+5=20?

That's right. Since I had sooooo much extra room, I went to tractor supply and added 12 more babies to my chicken stash. Hey, don't judge me. Chickens are little. They produce eggs. Why not add a bunch more? Because, I ran out of chicken room again.

Since I follow the blogs of several other crazy chicken mommas, I've heard that this chicken math has been a problem before and by all of them. You can never justify having too many chickens.

One reason for this chicken math=Chickens Die.

Free ranging chickens can be eaten one or several at a time any day by predators. Chickens die of heart attacks quite often. They can't stand the heat of the summer. Parasites and disease can wipe out a flock in a heartbeat. Having too many chickens ensures that if one or two go missing, other hens will continue laying eggs so there is always fresh eggs sitting in the nesting boxes.

But the main reason for chicken math=Chickens are FUN!!!

Chickens roosting for the night.

So, my Manly, Tractor-Loving Husband, loved me so much, he built me a bigger coop on the side of our barn. What's my grand total of chickens now?

57 Ladies +

3 Gentlemen=

60 Feathered Friends

(And I plan on getting more this Spring.)

Sixty reasons to restart my awesome blog, Kelly's Country Squawk. Sixty reasons to collect several dozen eggs every day. Sixty reasons to laugh hysterically when I come home and they all run as fast as they can to get their afternoon snack. Below is a video I took this week after an ice storm in Michigan. I call this video, "The Ice Skating Beauties".

Is it worth it? Totally....can we talk about the price of eggs????

Thanks for reading my Country Squawk,

Kelly

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