Counting your chickens

[backyardchicks]

Oh, I and I find that the easiest way for me to count my chickens is to wait until they are perching in their coop at night.

 

[Justagalwithchicks]

I only have 3 hens and they keep me busy enough!

 

[Chive]

Right now I have 36 chickens total. 14 of them are 8 weeks old and 22 of them are 3 weeks old. I haven’t been home for 5 weeks, so I haven’t even seen the 22 that are 3 weeks old. I hatched them all with my incubator (the 22 that hatched while I was gone were taken care of by my friends), so I’m really looking forward to all the boys I will have to deal with when I get back .
We just moved to a new house in July, so I have a smaller flock right now. But before we moved I had about as much as 80 birds. If we hadn’t moved, I probably would have had more…….. maybe. I don’t know if my parents would have allowed me to have that many birds before we moved to a bigger property .
I definitely want to get into the 100s, but they are going to be paying for themselves, so we’ll see……

Not to sound off or anything, but how do you not know your exact amount of chickens? I literally count my chickens every single night (even when they don't free range).

Me too! I count them EVERY night. There were a few times when I was not at home, so someone else had to close them, and I always counted them once I got back the next day.
I know a few people who don’t count them. Our neighbors said they had about 70 (that was a guess they made) chickens in February, and just a couple weeks ago they said they now only have 3 roosters and a hen with a couple chicks, due to predators. They gave me 4 of the chicks, then a couple days later they said that 6 more showed up. They said when I get back I can have the rest of their chickens .
The 4 chicks they gave me looked like they were all boys before I left, so I’m hoping the other 6 chicks are mostly females.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I better not even answer this one.

Probably not if they were shocked at my 130!

Me too! I count them EVERY night.

I'm also a nightly chicken counter! (I count them coop by coop so I don't have to count all the way to 130 every night. )

 

[Chive]

I'm also a nightly chicken counter! (I count them coop by coop so I don't have to count all the way to 130 every night. )

That’s what I did too. I normally had 2 separate groups, so I would just count each group (and I didn’t even have 130). That is definitely a smarter way to do it!
Wow, that’s a lot of birds! I really want to break a 100 next year!

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

I'm also a nightly chicken counter! (I count them coop by coop so I don't have to count all the way to 130 every night. )

Back when I had more than one flock, I counted them by coop too. On one flock I had, I somehow got into the habit of counting them by breed and not by their total. Even though I currently know how birds I have of each of my breeds, back then when I was counting them by breed, it made it a lot easier to narrow down who was the missing bird. Now I have to go through a mental list of each bird and breed whenever I count one less from what I supposed to have.

 

[SourRoses]

We have around 60 or so. My counter got broken.
I was really trying to keep track, but with hatching every month from December through July, broodies adding their contributions, selling some chicks, lots of juveniles, and some adults, I've totally lost it. Next year I'm going to stop hatching a couple months sooner, as summer sales have been slower.
I'd like to get numbers down to keepers only. 30ish? It will be easier to count!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Back when I had more than one flock, I counted them by coop too. On one flock I had, I somehow got into the habit of counting them by breed and not by their total. Even though I currently know how birds I have of each of my breeds, back then when I was counting them by breed, it made it a lot easier to narrow down who was the missing bird. Now I have to go through a mental list of each bird and breed whenever I count one less from what I supposed to have.

Ugh, I hate that! Then most of the time I find the 'missing' bird has just tucked up next to someone out of sight or something. I ended up putting together a complete list of all of my breeds and which are in which coop so that, if someone is missing, I can pull it up on my phone and check off down the list until I figure out who.

 

[Ch1cken Tender]

I currently have 27 and counting! My Serama is setting on 5 eggs. At least two of which should be D’Uccle x Serama crosses, and the rest will be pure Seramas!

 

[Ch1cken Tender]

Ugh, I hate that! Then most of the time I find the 'missing' bird has just tucked up next to someone out of sight or something. I ended up putting together a complete list of all of my breeds and which are in which coop so that, if someone is missing, I can pull it up on my phone and check off down the list until I figure out who.

That used to happen to me pretty frequently. So I tap each chicken as I count to make sure nobody is hiding. I’m pretty sure my Ameraucana cockerel gives me “the look” every time I tap him.