A Phenomenon Called "Chicken Math"

Before I got my "Asiatic Ground Fowl", I had often heard of the term "chicken math". In case you are unaware of this phenomenon, I will present an example:

Susie goes to the store to buy 10 chickens. She comes home with 15. The next week she sees a breed she has been wanting to acquire for forever - she comes home with 5. Flock is now too big for her, so she sells 4 of them. But then she sees an ad on craigslist and can not resist and comes home with 8. Total = 24

Do you follow?

I thought this concept was utterly ridiculous until it happened to me. Let me explain. . .

So when we originally wanted to get chicks, I was going to drive up to Ideal Poultry (which is a major national hatchery that happens to be only a couple of hours away from where we live) and get 4 Silkies and 2 Easter Eggers (these are a type of mutt chicken that can lay blue, green, or even sometimes pink eggs and on top of this, they often times have a beard which puts it on the must have list for me.)

(Photo courtesy of backyardchickens.com)

(Example of their possible egg colors)

Anyways, I ended up deciding to get just Silkies from a local breeder instead of driving all the way over there. I planned to come home with no more than 6. I came home with 7. Then, last Friday I saw that a local feed store would be getting in a shipment of chicks that included my easter eggers (often incorrectly called Ameraucana), so I decided to reduce my Silkie flock and get 2 easter eggers. I sold 'Angry Bird' and two of the other Silkies and went to the feed store and got their last two easter eggers. So, to recap the chicken math: 7 - 3 + 2 = 6 which was the original number I wanted anyways - I just went a roundabout way of getting there. . .

So here are the new babies:

Baby #1: is a little darker in color than the other - it will be interesting to see what their feather color and pattern will be as they get older - with easter eggers, it's a surprise!

Baby #2: close up of the fuzzy beard

The two of them together and their slight difference in color:

Don't want to leave the silkies out! Here are pics from today of the ones I kept - two really seem unchanged, but the two biggest ones are entering the awkward teenage phase. . . you'll see what I mean. . .

The oldest ones are I think somewhere around 4 weeks old and their feathers are definitely coming in, while the other two may be closer to 3 weeks or runts. Only time will tell. All I know is no more chicken math. . .for now. . .