If you don’t keep chickens and have never kept chickens, you have probably never heard of chicken maths.
I had never heard of chicken maths or chicken math as our American friends call it, before I kept hens myself.
To be honest, it is not something you learn. Just the act of keeping chickens automatically makes you openly partake in chicken maths.
Resistance is futile. Once you get chickens, chicken maths will just become second nature.
A normal person or a non chicken person sees 100 hens. Chicken people see 10.
Some say it is a 1 to 4 ratio. If you have 8 chickens you really only have 2 and so on. So say, 50 hens fly into your coop. Really it is only 12 and a half.
Half? I hear you cry. Well, a silkie isn’t a full chicken is it? Or a pekin. Even bantams could class as half a chicken they are so small.
One plus one equals 108.
If they’re not laying they don’t count
Cockerels don’t count
End of lay don’t count.
I you have 76 chickens, 10 lay dark brown eggs, 15 lay ordinary coloured eggs. You have 17 blue layers, 11 white layers, seven pink and 15 olive eggers, you actually only have six chickens. That’s right.
The worst bit is when you go and buy your first two (eight) hens, you get them home and realise your coop was only meant to house five animals. You keep that coop because, the 17 (68) eggs in your incubator will need somewhere to go when they are juveniles and you invest in an extra large coop so that your hens are happy and have plenty of room to roost.
Until you make it your life’s work to fill the coop.
Then you find a new breed. A Polish frizzle for example and it would be stupid to not have a couple (6) of them to start some kind of breeding programme.
The Breeding programmes of every breed you own means you need more coops to keep the eggs pure. Another incubator or two and more coops or the young pullets.
Don’t get me started on ducks. Duck maths is practically the same as chicken maths and. I am not going to lie, goat maths may be happening right now.
Huge thanks to Joanna Compton, Helen Fowler and Keri James-Aiken for the use of their chicken photos. They have flocks that I am now aspiring to. I have many, many more chickens to acquire.
Haha this made me laugh! I hope your husband likes chickens too – and goats 😉
Nat.x
This is hilarious!!! I don’t have chickens but it’s been a lifelong dream. When we get somewhere with a bit of land I’d like 6, maybe 8 hens! #AnimalTales
Well, you learn something everyday!
This made me laugh because my neighbour keeps chickens and she started with 4 and now has 15 and she counts in chicken maths I would say!!
#animaltales
we hatched 2 eggs and ended up with 12 chickens #animaltales
Are you sure you’re counting your chickens correctly? There are specific rules to keep in mind while counting:
1. You do not count any eggs in the incubator because you don’t count your chickens before they hatch.
2. You don’t count chickens that were given as a gift because they were a present and are more properly considered a gift rather than a chicken.
3. You do not count any bird under 18 weeks old because they are too young to lay eggs so they are considered juveniles rather than chickens.
4. You don’t count bantams because bantams are considered bantams rather than chickens.
5. You don’t count ornamental birds because they are ornamental and are considered yard art, folk art, or fine art rather than chickens.
6. You don’t count birds beyond laying age because they’re retired and don’t lay eggs and are considered retirees rather than chickens.
7. You don’t count birds in moult because they’re are in moult and missing feathers so cannot be properly considered as complete chickens.
8. You don’t count males because they are protectors of the flock and are more accurately considered guard dogs rather than chickens.
9. You don’t count laying hens because they produce eggs and thus are more accurately described as a food source rather than chickens.
10. You don’t count sick or injured birds because they are sick or injured and their disposition is in question so they go on the injured or sick list not on your list of chickens.
11. You don’t count birds that are for sale or possibly for sale because they belong or will belong to someone else.
12. You don’t count broody hens because you can’t even get close enough to count them.
13. You don’t count freeloading chickens because they’re not producing eggs, therefore they are defective chickens.
Thus, if you follow the rules (and it is always good to follow the rules) you may only count healthy full size female chickens that are not in moult and not a gift and are of laying age but not laying.
Happy counting! We’ve officially got no chooks
I LOVE this. Than you so much for taking the time to comment and you definitely win the prize for the most amazing comment ever 🙂 We have none either 😉
Absolutely NO chickens here then either – I best see if the local market has any for sale when I go this week as to be chickenless would be a sad state of affairs!
A great post to add to #AnimalTales – thank you!
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