The truth is . . I don’t know how many chickens we have and I don’t want to know. Most of the eggs have hatched, with 5 or 6 left that may or may not hatch. I’ll give them til tomorrow afternoon before tossing them. Let’s just say that we have a lot of chickens! We won’t keep them all though. Too many roosters is not good so we’ll try to find homes for the extra roosters.
We have a plan as to which coops will house which chickens and though it will take some moving around, and some “introductions” since we can’t just add new chickens to old chickens cold turkey, it will take a few weeks to work out the details. We try to stick with 4 square feet per full size chicken, and about 3 square feet per bantam chickens inside the coops. Except for the bantams, our chickens mostly run loose. The bantams are kept in pens because they go straight up in the tops of trees at dusk and they don’t last long up there.
Coop #1
Coop #1: This coop has enough room for 18 full size chickens. We currently have 10 red hens in there. The Iowa Blues will be moved over there. We could have up to 8 Iowa Blues but right now, we have 6. Three of them are pullets and 3 are roosters. I would like to end up with 6 Iowa Blue hens and 1 rooster. That would give us 16 hens/1 rooster in this coop. That shouldn’t be a problem.
Coop #2
Coop #2: The image above is when Vince was building Coop #2 a couple of years ago. This is a “duplex” and there’s room for either 12 full size chickens or about 16 bantams on each side. On the north side (where Vince is standing, we have 3 Dominiques and 2 old red hens. As of now, there are 5 hens and 1 old rooster in there. I’ll probably add all the Dominique babies in there once they grow up. I think there are about 8 of them. That will put 14 chickens in there so I may have to put the 2 old red hens somewhere else. On the south side, we currently have 7 bantams and have 11 more than will eventually be added there. Of those 11, there are 4 or 5 roosters and we can’t keep all of them. We may end up keeping the following 3:
- Faverolles – I have two . . a girl and a boy. I would like to keep those and maybe have more from them. Even the roosters are supposed to be kind and gentle.
- Buff Brahmas – I have three of these – two girls and a rooster.
- Screech – He’s such a cute little rooster. Having one rooster and no girls the same breed, whatever breed that is, doesn’t make a lot of sense so we’ll have to see.
That would leave me with 12 hens. The Silky rooster with the turquoise ears is already in that coop. I’m thinking I could put the Buff Brahmas in there and that would give me 11 hens and 2 roosters. Not a great ratio but the two roosters are pretty calm. In one of our smaller coops, I might keep the two Faverolles and see how that goes.
Coops
Coop #3: This is the not yet painted coop. It is also a duplex and each side has room for 16 full size chickens. On the east side, there are currently 13 chickens. Six are black copper marans and 7 are from the first batch of chickens I hatched. Once the Dominiques come out, I think that will leave 10 chickens in there so I can add 6 more from the newly hatched chickens.
The west side will be empty once the Iowa Blues are moved in with the red chickens. I will put 16 chickens from the newly hatched babies in there.
In the early fall, we should be able to figure out how many roosters we have, and by then the chickens will be almost full size. We can make adjustments and get the numbers of chickens per coop all lined out at that time.
These are the chicks on the east side of the coop. Notice how they’re mostly all dark.
4 Week Old Chicks
The photo below was taken Saturday of the chicks that had just hatched.
Newly Hatched Chicks
Notice how many of them are light. The darkest ones are from my Dominique chickens. Can you see the one in the middle against the far right wall? That’s one of the Buff Laced Polish. They are going to be so funny looking. If you can see a yellow one with a black “stripe” down his back, that’s an Ancona. There are a couple of Ameraucanas in this picture, maybe one Welsummer and maybe one Cochin.
Yes, we have lots of chickens right now! 🙂
Dottie N. says
You might have to take your knitting out to the chicken coops, LOL.
Penny says
Judy
Very interesting read, actually very exciting to me! I am fasinated that you so easily identify the breeds of your chickens! I think that you now have a chicken ranch! Ihope that you will continue to write about your chickens. I have always wanted chickens, especially a banty hen! Although I live on a horse ranch I can’t have any chickens because of the coyotes, bobcats & foxes that manage to get into our property. Thanks for sharing your chickens with me! Penny in So CA
Winona Thompson says
Looking good. We are having the same issues right now. LOL I set 50 eggs in my incubator that I had not used in several years. I did not expect many to hatch. I was wrong. Thirty-six our of 50 hatched. I had 25 ordered from a hatchery to replace my layers. They sent 27. So I have 63 chicks two weeks old. I have 15 ducks coming tomorrow. I also have 36 more eggs in the incubator. I have 12 adult chickens, but one of those disappeared last week. I believe she is setting somewhere. I have been busy trying to divide sheds and come up with enough places for all these chicks. I have it made right now, but any more added and I am in trouble. LOL Good luck!!!
Karen langseth says
Six pound chickens taste the best. ;). Don’t name them, they taste better that way.
JudyL says
Most of our first chickens were egg birds and don’t get that big. On average, they weigh 4 – 5 pounds when fully grown and they’re just not plump enough for cooking. We’re now switching to a combination egg/meat bird so we should have some larger chickens for butchering.
Carolyn says
WOW I don’t know how you keep it straight! I really thought you just put them all in the same coop! thanks for the education.
Joan says
Man that’s a lot of chickens! I can see why you didn’t want to count! Now I know where you are when the blog is quiet. Taking care of that many chickens is no small project! Not to mention the gardening, knitting and husband tending. Thanks for the update! It made my day!
Vicky says
Let’s see if I have this straight. You’re going to put the Iowa blues in with the red chickens. Wouldn’t that make purple chicks?!! ;~)
Angie says
I know you must have a plan for all these chickens—you have never mentioned.
Sophie says
I love reading about your chicken adventures, but sometimes I wonder if chicken hoarding is a thing … (just kidding). Chicken Ranch is a thing and probably a lot closer to whatever is going on at your place.
Lynne in Hawaii says
So many decisions! Hope the chickens cooperate and settle in to their places. What’s happening witht he turkey chicks? Where are they going to live? 🙂
katie says
Yes wondering the same do they have a separate condo??
I remember seeing them next door to some one and getting used to them…
JudyL says
Yes, the turkeys will have a separate place to live. It will be more like a shelter than a coop. We lost Whistler so we only have two left.
JudyL says
And, that shelter isn’t built yet. They’re currently living next door to the red chickens but that’s only because that was the only empty spot available.