Overview
Mama Hen’s baby chicks have gotten loose. Work together to spin the spinner, count your spaces, and collect chicks back into the coop before Mama Hen reaches the end of the trail.
Featured on: Best Board Games for 3 Year Olds
Kaitlyn’s Review
Likes
- Perfect starter game for young kids
- Cooperative — win and lose together
- Peaceable Kingdom offers free replacement pieces
- Great fine motor skill practice
Dislikes
- Almost always win — limited challenge for older kids
First Impressions
Count Your Chickens is one of our family’s favourite games for young players. We love working cooperatively to help Mama Hen, and we love the learning built into every play. It works on counting, turn-taking, social skills, and fine motor development — all without feeling like homework.
The box says 3+ but because it’s cooperative, younger kids can participate with guidance.
Thoughts
The core mechanic is simple: spin the spinner, move Mama Hen to the matching animal picture on the board, count the number of spaces moved, and collect that many chicks back into the coop.
Five blue chick squares on the board let you collect one extra chick when you land on them. The fox on the spinner sends one chick back out — the only real obstacle in the game.
The cooperative format shines here. Kids learn how to win and lose as a team, which builds emotional resilience without the full weight of personal defeat. It also keeps the more confident players from dominating — everyone is working toward the same goal.
Fine motor development is a genuine benefit. The chicks are small and require careful handling. Using the spinner is a skill that develops over time — early on, kids swat at it; eventually they learn to flick properly.
The challenge ceiling is low. We found we won the majority of games, and once our kids grew past a certain age they started wanting something harder. This is a game you get strong value from during a specific developmental window, then graduate from. We moved on to Hoot Owl Hoot, which is still cooperative but more challenging.
Conclusion
Count Your Chickens is an excellent starter game. It’s educational, colourful, affordable, and built by a company (Peaceable Kingdom) that stands behind their products with free replacement pieces. It made our best board games for 3-year-olds list for good reason. Get it for the young gamer in your life — just know you’ll be ready for something harder within a year or two.
