# How Many Chickens Is Enough?



## Meerkat

We have 3 chickens laying now and 10, 10 week old Barred Rock hens.

We just want enough eggs for the 2 of us.How many should we keep?

I was thinking 5 would give us eggs and some left over for extra protien for the 3 medium size dogs.

We were going to trade or sell the eggs but too many rules and regulations fron the gov.. 

I think 5 ,what do yall think?


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## Clarice

Just depends on the individual. We have 75 chickens and there is only 2 of us, but we have developed a good sell/barter market for our eggs. We keep our layers (have no roosters) for 3 years and just replace as needed, canning the older birds. Should things get more desperate we will get some roosters so we can raise our on chicks. 75 is not too much more work than keeping 12. My youngest daughter is coming up soon and wants to take 6 back with her for her family of 4 to have fresh eggs. IMHO what ever you are comfortable with.


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## Frugal_Farmers

We had 32 layers prior to a wild dog attack. We are now down to 16 layers. We are averaging about 12 eggs per day right now.

Consider a few things when making your decision. "Farm fresh eggs" are in huge demand. Sure there are lots of regulations, but don't let that deter you.

We take care of friends and family with eggs. Everyone has offered to pay us for the eggs, but we come to a mutual understanding that they share any excess they have of anything with us. This is working out great with the good old fashioned bartering system. There are a few folks that have nothing to offer us in return. These are the folks that are of the belief that their money will buy them anything. These are the same people that make no preparations as well. We do not "sell" eggs to them. Our understanding is that they "donate" $2.00 per dozen to keep the chickens fed.

Although most of our chickens' diet is natural through grasses and bugs, we do supplement them with some scratch, oats and cracked corn.

Consider your feed cost into your decision process. Feed is going up faster than groceries in the store. Also consider desired total egg production.

Having a close source for a roster is a wise idea in the event things get really ugly. This will allow you to continue your "flock" in the out years if necessary.


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## power

It will depend on how many eggs you use each day and the breed of chickens you decide to get. Some breeds will lay an egg a day and some breeds will lay an egg a week. Most are somewhere inbetween.


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## dunappy

I have a 2 person and two dog household. We have around 30 hens and a couple roosters. I let some of the hens go broody and hatch out chicks and I collect eggs and feed the eggs to us and the dogs and then barter the rest.



Meerkat said:


> We have 3 chickens laying now and 10, 10 week old Barred Rock hens.
> 
> We just want enough eggs for the 2 of us.How many should we keep?
> 
> I was thinking 5 would give us eggs and some left over for extra protien for the 3 medium size dogs.
> 
> We were going to trade or sell the eggs but too many rules and regulations fron the gov..
> 
> I think 5 ,what do yall think?


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## gypsysue

We've got five hens for the two of us, but we don't eat eggs every day. That leaves us some extra for baking and even to accumulate to give to friends or neighbors, who are often gifting us with excesses of their own (including the occasional quart of goat milk!).


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## The_Blob

Meerkat said:


> We have 3 chickens laying now and 10, 10 week old Barred Rock hens.
> 
> We just want enough eggs for the 2 of us.How many should we keep?
> 
> I was thinking 5 would give us eggs and some left over for extra protien for the 3 medium size dogs.
> 
> We were going to trade or sell the eggs but too many rules and regulations fron the gov..
> 
> I think 5 ,what do yall think?


IMO any eggs you don't eat the dogs will GLADLY accept


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## Meerkat

Thanks evryone.I forgot this was here.

I had a beautiful barred rock roo but all he did was crow.So we sold him.We did miss him but not the crowing.

We do feed the dogs eggs fom one of the birds that keeps pecking out her feathers.She is penned away from others.

I had put up a thread about growing chicken feed to help with feeding in case we can't get feed.All of them are let out most of the day,put back in at night.

It took years to finish the pens but they work now.


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## HozayBuck

*We have free range chix... so the numbers can go down pretty fast at times.. lately we seem to be doing ok.. they now roost in the barn and near the big dog so at night the Owls aren't getting them and the four footed "Owls" aren't doing well...the Hawks watch but seem to be hanging back...

We have 6 older hens, and several coming up of different ages.. we don't use many eggs and at times have many doz in the frige.. The L of TM cook with them and we usually have Breakfast for supper once a week.. which I love!! since I don't have more then toast and a banana for breakfast..

I guess we will start bartering some eggs down the road or selling them for "pet food" 

The hardest part of free range chix is finding their nests.. usually not to hard but they can get good at hiding lol.. plus keeping the ducks off them..we have 3 ducks sitting right now and since we don't have a drake their own eggs are wasted... L of TM has a bad allergic reaction to duck eggs so.... guess we could gather them and barter them..

I guess this didn't answer anybodies questions but... 6 hens will give 3 to 5 eggs a day average I'd say.. that adds up in a week!! most of us now days don't eat 2 or 3 every morning anymore.. so having a few extra dozen in the frige is common...

good luck!! I loves my chickens!!... no demands... and they love the bugs!!*


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## Meerkat

Thanks HozeyB.I don't want to feed a lot of chickens and trying to get them on homemade natural feed,not there yet.

Hubby wants to keep all 'his'chickens.I say keep enough to replace the ones you may lose.
I worry about whats in the feed now.So we let them free range as much as possible.


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## Jimmy24

I have 16 White Leg Horns....I got eggs forever....:2thumb:

3/4 of them double yokers....

Jimmy


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## The_Blob

Meerkat said:


> I had put up a thread about growing chicken feed to help with feeding in case we can't get feed.


feed em' as many bugs as you possibly can

raising crickets is EASY & CHEAP

Ghann's Cricket Farm :: Live Crickets

You can make a cricket warren/brooder out of a plastic 'storage tote' with moistened paper towels (the generic brown kind are best IMO) placed inside. The more surface area you can put in it (layers/structure) the more crickets you'll get; I've used the cardboard that separates the bottles in a case of beer (it seems similar to what the pros use).


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## Meerkat

The_Blob said:


> feed em' as many bugs as you possibly can
> 
> raising crickets is EASY & CHEAP
> 
> Ghann's Cricket Farm :: Live Crickets
> 
> You can make a cricket warren/brooder out of a plastic 'storage tote' with moistened paper towels (the generic brown kind are best IMO) placed inside. The more surface area you can put in it (layers/structure) the more crickets you'll get; I've used the cardboard that separates the bottles in a case of beer (it seems similar to what the pros use).


 Thanks Blob,we thought of raising worms and crickets.This will be helpful info.
I'll start saving cardboard.I have a 18 pack of Miller bottles in the ridge now.They are about out of date,only drink one now and then.I may pop a top later.:beercheer:


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## Meerkat

Jimmy24 said:


> I have 16 White Leg Horns....I got eggs forever....:2thumb:
> 
> 3/4 of them double yokers....
> 
> Jimmy


 We have 2 leghorns and one RIR and 10 B-rocks.I want to get down to about 6 b-rocks.I think that will be plenty to feed and care for for the 2 of us.Only know a couple people I'd trust to trade feed for eggs.The SS troops are going after those selling eggs now.


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## floridacracker

we have 8 layers and we get 5-6 each day average


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## Meerkat

The_Blob said:


> feed em' as many bugs as you possibly can
> 
> raising crickets is EASY & CHEAP
> 
> Ghann's Cricket Farm :: Live Crickets
> 
> You can make a cricket warren/brooder out of a plastic 'storage tote' with moistened paper towels (the generic brown kind are best IMO) placed inside. The more surface area you can put in it (layers/structure) the more crickets you'll get; I've used the cardboard that separates the bottles in a case of beer (it seems similar to what the pros use).


 Good idea! Next trip to package store area will get a box.


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## Meerkat

floridacracker said:


> we have 8 layers and we get 5-6 each day average


 We still have the 13 birds.He wants to can the ones i don't want.But I am not use to killing things..I'm a hypocrit,I let others do the dirty work.
He loves his chickens but he hunted when he was young and they cleaned their food.I'm not ready yet for a killing to be performed here..I'm good with just the eggs.


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## HozayBuck

*We have....*

*Well it sorta depends on the Bob Cats and "Yotes" but the dogs seem to do a pretty good job... ours free range but return to the barn to roost..
we do lose some but always seem to have more coming along.. I just know we have more eggs then we can use...

I do enough shooting around here it helps keep the preds away...Owls..diff story... they take one once in a while but it's like a tax.. and no I don't shoot Owls! It's my Spirit animal ...yea I know... but I didn't pick the Owl...He picked me...looong ago...

I love our chickens, they just feed themselves and keep on giving.. we have 2 maybe 3 that are at least 5 years old.. and still cranking out eggs, the Speckled black and white one lays green eggs..wild! ..She got grabbed by a yoate a few weeks ago right in the yard..Miz Sheri saw it and yelled, scared the Yoate so bad she dropped the hen!! never ruffled a feather.. never bothered her green egg almost every day..

Life on the homestead!

*


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## cajunmeadows

If you truely preparing for a worst case . As many ass you can comfortably care for. In the event the eggs can be bartered for other items and meat you do not raise. jmo


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## Jezcruzen

We have ten hens and two roosters. Barred rocks and Buff Orpintons. We don't eat eggs everyday, either. We usually get four to six eggs daily. I have discovered that when you free range your birds like we do, the hens often lay eggs in locations other than the nest boxes. I've found eggs in flower pots and inside bags of mulch, and once beside the chimney outside.

Since we don't eat all the eggs we collect, we give eggs away to friends and family. Free ranging helps a lot with the feed bill, too.


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## Possumfam

It doesn't seem to matter how many chickens we have right now cuz they're all on strike!!!!! We've got a few new hens (hatched out about 6-7 months ago) that should be laying right now, but they're not laying either. Out of about 18 hens, we're getting about 2 eggs a week, Yes, I said week, not day. We're in North Florida, so it's not THAT cold yet, but for about a month or so, we're not getting eggs. I've heard a few people say they're not getting eggs around here. Anyone else having this problem? We're rationing and we've had to purchase eggs twice in the past month.


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## whome

In the summer I keep about 30 hens, in the winter I figured out I can keep about 15 hens and they will keep the chicken house warm enough on most nights to keep the water from freezing. It seems in the winter when I bake more and need more eggs I don't get as many because of the lesser daylight, so I end up keeping more than I probably need to. But hey, at least they like those icky earwigs


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## UncleJoe

Possumfam said:


> We've got a few new hens (hatched out about 6-7 months ago) that should be laying right now, but they're not laying either.


Except for the 3 that survived last winters predator invasion, all of ours are about 7 months old and none are laying yet. I was expecting full production by October and I'm still waiting. Now that the days are so much shorter, I'm thinking we might not see regular egg laying till spring.


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## Meerkat

Possumfam said:


> It doesn't seem to matter how many chickens we have right now cuz they're all on strike!!!!! We've got a few new hens (hatched out about 6-7 months ago) that should be laying right now, but they're not laying either. Out of about 18 hens, we're getting about 2 eggs a week, Yes, I said week, not day. We're in North Florida, so it's not THAT cold yet, but for about a month or so, we're not getting eggs. I've heard a few people say they're not getting eggs around here. Anyone else having this problem? We're rationing and we've had to purchase eggs twice in the past month.


 We have 9 barred rocks , 2 leghorns and 1 red all are laying just fine.We average about 10 eggs a day and its now Dec.2 .even the old RI Red who just showed up one day is laying.
I would check the feed and maybe the water,try bottled water for a few weeks .But it would seem there is a ptoblem with the cickens themselves.:scratch . I know that they are messing with our food ,maybe buy chickens somewhere else?
Sorry I don't know what could be the problem,but this is what I'd do .
I want to get some roos this spring in case ther frankensteins have breeded out the egg laying capacitiy. Our food is killing us and now we even have to watch the seeds and animals we buy from 'some' of them.I got mine at Ideal Poultry and so far good results.I also bought Peking Ducts from them but sold them because they were just too messy .


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## Clarice

When our hens slow down on laying we buy crimped oats from the farm supply, soak them 24 hours in water, then feed the hens only oats for 5 days then go back to our regular feed of laying pellets & chopped corn. They go right back into production. Also chickens need 12 - 14 hours of light (to make an egg) so we have a light in the hen house set on a timer. We are down to about 50 layers and get on adverage 40 eggs a day. Hope this helps. Almost forgot chickens need something green and a protien sourse. We pull greens from the garden and feed them any meat scraps we have.


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## Possumfam

Clarice said:


> When our hens slow down on laying we buy crimped oats from the farm supply, soak them 24 hours in water, then feed the hens only oats for 5 days then go back to our regular feed of laying pellets & chopped corn. They go right back into production.


Thanks, Clarice. I know about the light, but we don't mess with that. We figure we'll just get fewer eggs, and some of them have molted. I was wondering about the feed, like Meerkat said. They still have access to some green, and we give them additional greens and a few scraps. We could probably up the protein, though. However, I've never heard of the crimped oats thing. We'll have to have a family meeting for that, though, cuz sure enough, someone will forget and mess up the process. We've just never experienced ALL of them stopping at the same time. We've been eggless now for a while. Haven't seen any snakes, either. :scratch Some of them are getting up there in age, too.


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## Meerkat

Possumfam said:


> Thanks, Clarice. I know about the light, but we don't mess with that. We figure we'll just get fewer eggs, and some of them have molted. I was wondering about the feed, like Meerkat said. They still have access to some green, and we give them additional greens and a few scraps. We could probably up the protein, though. However, I've never heard of the crimped oats thing. We'll have to have a family meeting for that, though, cuz sure enough, someone will forget and mess up the process. We've just never experienced ALL of them stopping at the same time. We've been eggless now for a while. Haven't seen any snakes, either. :scratch Some of them are getting up there in age, too.


 Funny you mention snakes we saw a large snake today on out porch steps.Hubby had just told me last night to stop propping open the screen door because a snake can come in and hide,good think I listened to him and did'nt prop it open today. We took it to the woods and let it go,not sure what it was ut it was agressive when we picked it up with the net.
We gave the chickens 2 cans of tuna yesteday along with kitchen scraps.We give them beef too.My friend is bringing me some worms to raise.


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## Clarice

Possumfam, you mentioned your hens were quite old. The good productive years of a layer is only 3. We have ours staggered in age so we never run completely out of eggs. We purchase 25 chicks every year and the older ones go in the canner. How do we know which are the oldest? We buy a different color each time. Maybe time to replace yours.


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## HozayBuck

*Sadly the old speckled green egg layer is no longer with us.. no clue but we think she was dive bombed... we have a big bird around seen it once and Miz S has seen it out of the corner of her eyes a few times, it's every bit as big as a Golden Eagle ( which dwarfs a Bald Eagle ) but I don't think they have them down here...Miz Sheri calls it a Pterodactyl , whatever it's big!...

I miss the old hen but she was close to 6 yo and laid most every day... We don't eat the old birds, kinda figger they give enough so... honorable retirement ! But yes shtf and everything goes on the block! we have a small black Ruffie hen that lays eggs about the size of of a jaw breaker lol... tiny and brown.. takes 5 to make a decent omlet!!!*


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## The_Blob

Meerkat said:


> Funny you mention snakes we saw a large snake today on out porch steps.Hubby had just told me last night to stop propping open the screen door because a snake can come in and hide,good think I listened to him and did'nt prop it open today. We took it to the woods and let it go,not sure what it was ut it was agressive when we picked it up with the net.
> We gave the chickens 2 cans of tuna yesteday along with kitchen scraps.We give them beef too.My friend is bringing me some worms to raise.


you might want to get a herpetology/ophiology text for next time just in case it's NOT an indigenous specie


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## Possumfam

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ME!!!!! One of the ladies gave us an egg after Christmas and it caught on! The girls are back in business! Of course, it ain't summer yet, but we're getting a few every day! :2thumb:


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## Riverdale

Just remember, you can make egg cheese (Ukranian egg cheese), dehydrate them, make pickled eggs, , egg bread. LOTS of used for eggs.

We run between 15 and 30 hens, depending on the age and time of year. We make enough out selling 'farm fresh eggs' (at $2/dozen) to pay for the feed. We get our eggs over and above that.


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## musketjim

Last year we started with one and just left her in the garage. This year we moved up to 4, 2 black australorps and silver wyandottes. My chicken coop was built by a friend and will need a bit of work in the spring sealing it up. We'll move to maybe 7 or 8 next year. Not sure what kinds yet. I like variety. We get usually 3-4 eggs every couple days in winter. The problem I'm running into this year is frozen and broken eggs (North Pole -43 this morning, high temp.-37) The dogs like it tho. If I catch them before they crack I thaw them and put them in the fridge. I grew some barley at my cabin this year and put the straw in their coop so they can pick and fuss a bit. In summer they free range and next year I'll start working on home made food. Just heard about table scraps on a previous post thanks for that tip. I'm still learning about chickens so I love this thread.

The whole world sucks,America sucks a lot less and Alaska don't suck at all.


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## Graham

We have been keeping four or five chickens for about ten years now. Each spring the local feed shop gives us 15 one-day-old chicks free with a bag of food as a thank you for business. I raise them and choose the best four for layers and we eat the rest. The old ones make chicken stock. A couple of years ago I got three guinea fowl instead but we couldn't stand the noise and with B&B guests they had to go. This year I'm buying six hens at point-of-lay as my step-daughter and her husband have joined us. Kate likes making cakes! Maybe I'll make that eight!


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## MommaBearMB

Everything I have read and my da has experienced says you should have two more chickens than the eggs you want per week. Ex., If you want 1/2 a doz. eggs per week, you need 8 chickens. Has anyone tried preserving eggs, yet? (Wipe shell with a light coat of mineral oil, will keep 9-12 mos.) Curious how well it works with "homegrown" eggs...


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## ComputerGuy

WE have 40 chickens with different varieties, white leggers, buff orphins (sp) Rhode Islands. LOTS of EGGS!! We also have 14 turkeys (dumbest animals EVER), and 6 guinies, and of course rabbits!


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## Possumfam

MommaBearMB said:


> Everything I have read and my da has experienced says you should have two more chickens than the eggs you want per week. Ex., If you want 1/2 a doz. eggs per week, you need 8 chickens. Has anyone tried preserving eggs, yet? (Wipe shell with a light coat of mineral oil, will keep 9-12 mos.) Curious how well it works with "homegrown" eggs...


Don'tcha mean per day? Especially during the longer days. I can understand fewer eggs in the winter, but at 1/2 doz per week, it'd cost too much to feed them.


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## netandtim

ComputerGuy said:


> We also have 14 turkeys (dumbest animals EVER), and 6 guinies!


Turkeys dumber than guineas? AYE YI YI! Didn't think there could be a fowl dumber than guineas


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