Chicken Math is Real

Shortly after we moved last year, we decided to get chickens. We started out with five and a small coop. I had heard about this theory of "Chicken Math" that basically says you may think you're going to only have 5, then it becomes a little bit of an obsession and next thing you know, you have 20 running around, but I didn't really buy into it. I mean, why would I need more than 5 chickens?

I don't know if it's the fresh eggs or the hours of joy watching them run around, but somehow, chickens seem to just appear. Usually at our house, this happens during an innocent trip to Rural King. We go to buy feed, or fencing, or a new pair of boots, and we end up leaving with chicks because someone (usually me) decides life just can't go on without 5 more baby chicks in our flock, or our flock isn't complete without buff orpingtons, and sometimes, you get this crazy idea that it would be good to learn how to raise and butcher some cornish crosses.

We've learned a lot this past year and a half. Like some birds are attention hogs and like to photo-bomb their coop mates.

 And sometimes the antics of said photo bomber confuse the autofocus on your camera

And even though you envision all of the chickens happily frolicking around, there's always one group that refuses to play along.

Then you find yourself building a chicken mansion and you finally accept that Chicken Math is real

Then you look around and realize the original run intended for just a handful of chickens isn't big enough anymore.

So you take down the fences and decide to give them the entire backyard.

And you wonder how life was ever complete without this view from your dining room window!