Start of Understanding Chicken Math

If you visit a store that services farmers often enough and in spring, then chances are at some point, you will encounter chicks. A lot of chicks, over and over again. And, if you garden and have always wanted a farmstead/homestead, then chances are you will eventually buy your own chicks. As we had decided on home educating our children, we decided we would start by getting our own chicken eggs for a ‘science project’. A sale later, and we had purchased an incubator. Then there was the question of how we would get fertile eggs.

We didn’t have or know anyone who currently had hens and a rooster. The answer came with an online order. A call from the post office. A visit to its sketchy back doors to get a box of carefully packaged eggs. And, despite our best efforts and some development we got to follow by candling, none of the eggs hatched. With an excited six-year-old who would be crushed, there came a secret trip to the store, and ‘magically’ there were four little chicks. Alas, we were not meant to keep these chicks we had ‘hatched’. We were in a rental that had not yet approved keeping some hens. So, we delivered them to some family members who could have chickens. Our experiment over, and shipping in and hatching eggs being what it is, we put away the incubator while still wishing to have our own chickens.

Eventually, that bubbled up enough, and we asked if we could keep chickens on the property. We got a yes! Then was the start of how to defend from racoons. We bought four and not even a week old, they all got eaten. A DIY coop and run build, another four-chick purchase and some big learning curves, and we still have three of the second batch today. They laid eggs that fall. Nothing quite like freshly laid, collected and cooked eggs. Since then, we have collected more animals and moved to an acreage in the country where we can collect those animals we want. Which is good as “chicken math” or “goat algebra” is no joke.