While a majority of chicken owners count their chickens when they lock them safely into their coops at night I don’t. I don’t have so many that I can’t count them but I don’t lock them up in a coop either. Right now I have 31 hens and 3 roosters that are pasture raised meaning I don’t lock them up. Ever. They roam where they please and roost where they want. Their favorite place to spend the night is the back porch but there are several who enjoy spending the twilight hours in trees. I have another 16 smaller birds in the chicken coop who do get counted and locked up at night. I have more newly hatched chicks in the house still. 37 of them. Yes. 37! But wait…. In about 10 days there will be another 3 DOZEN. Wait, there’s still more….. A week later there will be even more. By the end of April I expect to have a total of 160 chickens of various ages. Whew! Chicken math at its finest. Perhaps I don’t count them every night but I always know if one of them has gone missing. How? I couldn’t say really. I spend time watching them everyday. I enjoy it. It’s calming. It’s grounding. It’s just plain wonderful. Do you count your chickens? What’s your count? 
