What is Chicken Math?

Have you ever heard of chicken math?

Chicken math is a playful phrase acknowledging the tendency of chicken owners to continually expand their flock beyond what they originally intended. Here’s our chicken math story.  

Back in March, I brought up the idea of chickens to my husband. Our family loves eggs. We eat them for breakfast every morning. We have talked several times about teaching our kids where their food comes from, so it seemed like a good idea to invest in chickens. Next thing I know we have a prefab chicken coop big enough for 4-6 hens, and 6 chicks on order coming in on different dates. Two of those baby chicks I had to pick up right away due to them being ordered by someone that canceled that order from our local feed store (Twin Oaks Feed & Supply). So as a family, we built our brooder out of cardboard and duct tape along with a lid with a mesh top. The heater, feeder, waterer, and food were all ready. The first two came home, the next two were picked up 3 days later. A week after that was the final 3…or was it??? We walked into the feed store that Friday with our box in hand waiting to pick out our 3 chicks. The lady working at our local feed store said, “You know, we have extra.” I looked up to my husband, who was supposed to keep me grounded, and he said, “I can build a bigger coop.” I looked at the lady and said, “How many extra do you have?”. We walked out with 5 chicks that day making our flock from the initial planned 6 to 9. 

About a week later, I went to our local Tractor Supply (TSC) and saw cute, little, fluffy-butt chicks for sale. I was able to walk away empty-handed that time. But it did spark a conversation with my husband about more chicks. He was down for it. So we sold our prefab chicken coop and made a plan to build our coop from scratch and make it as big as we wanted. I called the local feed store to see what they had. They had one little lonely extra chick that day and I was able to preorder 3 more from them that were due the following week. We had our baker’s dozen and felt complete. Or did we???

From joining Facebook groups of local chicken enthusiasts, I learned about special events that seem to happen monthly in surrounding areas called “flock swaps”. The catch??? There wasn’t one because you don’t have to swap anything. It’s local farmers and breeders that typically gather at a local feed store and sell their products. There were chicks, hatching eggs, roosters, hens, ducklings, goats, a pig, and bunnies. We got to talk with a variety of people and the next thing I know, we have two more chicks and 2 ducklings. Attending more flock swaps has added to our numbers even more. We are now at 17 chickens and 4 ducks. All of this started with a dream of 6 lovely hens, but it has grown into something greater. 

This is chicken math, and that is exactly how it works!

You are suckered in by the cutest and fluffiest creatures ever and you can’t get enough. With each chick purchase, I giggle like a little kid at Christmas. 

So if you plan to start a flock of your own, understand that chicken math is real. No regrets!

This is part of our Chickens 101 series!