The 30 Cows and 28 Chickens Riddle Explained

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Learn the answer to this viral farmyard riddle (and others!)

Co-authored by Luke Smith, MFA

Last Updated: October 14, 2024 Fact Checked

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30 Cows & 28 Chickens Riddle

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More Clever Number Riddles

You might have seen this riddle all over TikTok or other social media: “There are 30 cows and 28 chickens in a field. How many didn’t?” It’s a head-scratcher, and at first glance, it doesn’t even seem to make sense. But believe us, it does, and we’ll show you how! We’ll also share plenty of other clever and groan-inducing number riddles to try for yourself, and to try on your friends.

Explaining the Cows & Chickens Riddle

“There are 30 cows and 28 chickens in a field. How many didn’t?” The answer is 10! It's a play on words, as “28” actually means “twenty ate,” so of the 30 cows, 20 ate chickens, which means that 10 cows didn’t eat chickens.

Section 1 of 2:

30 Cows & 28 Chickens Riddle

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There are 30 cows and 28 chickens in a field. How many didn’t?
- The answer: 10!
- The explanation: “Twenty-eight” is a play on words, and actually means “twenty ate.” When you read the riddle this way, it becomes a much different sentence, and also a math problem! There are 30 cows in a field, and 20 of them ate chickens. (Gasp!) How many didn’t eat chickens? 30 - 20 = 10!

Section 2 of 2:

More Clever Number Riddles

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1
If you have 3, you have 3. If you have 2, you have 2. But if you have 1, you have none. What is it?
- Answer: An option.
- Explanation: Options are only options if you can choose between them, so if you have to choose between 2 or 3 things, you have options. But if you have to choose just one thing, you don’t have an option.
2
If 2 is company and 3 is a crowd, what are 4 and 5? ^{[1]
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- Answer: 9!
- Explanation: This one is based on a common saying about social gatherings: “Two’s company and three’s a crowd.” The answer is more of a punchline, because you’re expecting something along the lines of the saying, but instead the riddle just asks you to add 4 and 5 together, which is 9.
3
Which is heavier: a ton of bricks, or a ton of feathers?
- Answer: They both weigh the same.
- Explanation: A “ton” is a unit of measurement—2,000 pounds (910 kg). You’re tempted to think a bunch of bricks is heavier (and a brick is indeed heavier than a feather), but if you have any 2 things that both weigh 1 ton, that’s the same as saying they weigh the same. That said, there’s probably a whole lot more feathers than bricks here!
4
I add 5 to 9 and get 2. How?
- Answer: You’re telling time.
- Explanation: If you think about this riddle as a simple math equation to try to solve it, you’d be right to think the answer is 14. But if you think about it like hours on a clock, then 5 hours after 9 o’ clock is 2 o’clock!
5
It’s midnight right now, and it’s raining. The forecast says tomorrow will be clear. Will it be sunny in 48 hours?
- Answer: No, it’ll be dark.
- Explanation: If it’s midnight, then forty-eight hours from now is just midnight in 2 days. And if it’s midnight, then it’s night time, and so it’s not sunny, regardless of the weather.
6
There’s a word I know, and 6 letters it contains. If I remove 1 letter, 12 remain. What is it?
- Answer: Dozens
- Explanation: If you remove the last letter from the 6-letter word “dozens,” then you just have “dozen,” which means 12.
7
How many months of the year have 28 days?
- Answer: All of them!
- Explanation: You might want to say just “February,” which only has 28 days, but every month has at least 28 days, so the answer is technically correct.
8
How did the soccer fan know the game's score would be 0-0 before it even started?
- Answer: The score is always 0-0 before the game!
- Explanation: The phrase “before it even started” makes you think the fan is predicting the score ahead of time, but it actually just refers to what the score of the game is before the game starts, and every game starts at a score of 0-0.
9
A man has 9 children, and half of them are boys. How is this possible? ^{[2]
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- Answer: They’re all boys!
- Explanation: You’re probably wondering what “half a boy” is, since 9 doesn’t divide evenly by 2. But if all of the children are boys, then that means that no matter how you split them up, half of them are still boys, and you don’t have to try and split an actual boy.
10
Two years ago, I was 3 times as old as my brother was. In 3 years, I will be twice as old as my brother. How old is each of us now? ^{[3]
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- Answer: The older brother is 17 now, and the younger brother is 7.
- Explanation: This one’s just a plain old math problem! If the speaker is 17 years old now, then 2 years ago he was 15 years old. That means his brother was 5 years old, because 15 is 3 times as old as 5.
11
There are 20 crows sitting on a fence, and a farmer shoots a third of them with one bullet. How many are left on the fence?
- Answer: None.
- Explanation: They flew away at the sound of the gun! This one’s a bit silly, but that’s what crows would do!
12
How would you evenly divide 10 apples among 11 people exactly?
- Answer: Make applesauce!
- Explanation: There’s probably a much more mathematical answer here, but if you mash all the apples into applesauce, you could just measure out an even portion to each person without having to slice the apple just right.
13
If a horse is tied to a rope that’s 5 feet long, and his food is 10 feet away, how did he eventually reach his meal?
- Answer: The rope wasn’t tied to anything.
- Explanation: Here’s another silly one, but that’s how the best riddles are! The riddle didn’t actually tell you the other end of the rope was tied to anything, so you shouldn’t assume it was.
14
How far can a dog run into the woods?
- Answer: Halfway.
- Explanation: The riddle asks how far a dog could run into the woods, but once it’s halfway, it starts running out of the woods, not into them.
15
I’m an odd number, but if you take away one of my letters, I become even. Which number am I?
- Answer: Seven
- Explanation: Seven is an odd number, but if you remove the “s,” it just becomes the word “even.”