When I got my first chickens I was not warned that I would need to be educated in chicken math. To keep any fellow newbie chicken owners from going through the same confusion I did I decided I would give you all a crash course in chicken math.
10=60 is our answer. Here is step by step how we arrived at the solution. It is going to be a bit Life of Fred word problemish.
I went to Tractor Supply to pick up 10 straight run leghorn chicks. While in tractor supply I noticed that they had Rhode Island red pullets. Since they were guaranteed to be female I purchased 5 of those. I had the kids with me and as soon as they noticed the ducks I knew we would be taking some home. We were required to purchase at least 2.
10=10+5+2
A local friend decided she had too many hens and was selling them at a great price. Since they were already laying I chose to purchase 3. 1 died in transit.
10=10+5+2+3-1
A few weeks later I decided we needed to add some variation to our less than colorful flock so I went to a local farm that sells a variety of chicks and purchased 10 more girls. I also decided that it was time for the ducks to go so we had them for dinner a few nights after purchasing the new girls.
10=10+5+2+3-1+10-2
10=60 is our answer. Here is step by step how we arrived at the solution. It is going to be a bit Life of Fred word problemish.
I went to Tractor Supply to pick up 10 straight run leghorn chicks. While in tractor supply I noticed that they had Rhode Island red pullets. Since they were guaranteed to be female I purchased 5 of those. I had the kids with me and as soon as they noticed the ducks I knew we would be taking some home. We were required to purchase at least 2.
10=10+5+2
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| What is this math you speak of? |
A local friend decided she had too many hens and was selling them at a great price. Since they were already laying I chose to purchase 3. 1 died in transit.
10=10+5+2+3-1
A few weeks later I decided we needed to add some variation to our less than colorful flock so I went to a local farm that sells a variety of chicks and purchased 10 more girls. I also decided that it was time for the ducks to go so we had them for dinner a few nights after purchasing the new girls.
10=10+5+2+3-1+10-2
Three weeks ago we lost 5 of our chicks to predators. We decided to replace 3 of them since three of the five lost were our favorites.
10=10+5+2+3-1+10-2-5+3
Now that our leghorns are older we know for sure that we have 4 roosters. We have decided to add more girls rather than getting rid of some of the roosters. We will pick up 10 chicks on Monday.
10=10+5+2+3-1+10-2-5+3+10
Now, at this point 10=35. But 35? That is not a nice number. If I am going to have chickens I will have to have them in multiples of ten...because...well, because that is chicken math. So I planned to add 5. But then I got to thinking; eggs can only be sold in dozens, so I can't have 40 chickens. Chickens should be kept the way their eggs are kept, in multiples of 12. Clearly, at some point 25 more will have to be added to the flock.
10=10+5+2+3-1+10-2-5+3+10+25
Now solve.
10=60
Congratulations on solving your first chicken math problem.
2 comments:
I started out getting chickens for eggs and meat. I never realized how fascinating they are. Between the beauty and variety of their plumage and the hypnotic quality of watching them, it is very easy for them to become addictive. My sons call me the bird lady, because we expanded past chickens and added ducks, guineas, and turkeys, as well.
4years later, and this is still my favorite blog post.
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