How many chickens to get ?

[trufflehunterthebadger]

We have plenty of space available. We are a family of 6/7 (5-6 adults and 1 child) and would like to be self sufficient with eggs. When not working excessively i do a lot of cooking and would normally get through 18 eggs in a normal week easily. I also have a celebration cake business amd would like to use my eggs for that

How many chickens would you get ? Thinking about 8-10 POL hybrids

if you get 8 and they lay an egg a day, you'll have 56 eggs a week...

I understand chickens egg cycles to be just iver 24hrs so they lay 6 out of 7 days. They might go off lay over winter and also when they are in moult. Or if they need worming as we just found out .

I also understand hybrids to lay approx 300 eggs in the first year then drop off whereas the egg producing pure breeds lay less but more consistently over a longer time.

But I might have that all completely wrong

Based on our experience, however many you get, you will always want more...

We were going to get a mix of hybrids so we have some "pretties" and some good layers. Maybe 6-8 would be better !

We chose our first 4 on their prettiness, then the next 3 on their egg production. Then we put chicks under a broody and chose them due to auto sexing.

The latest additions were chosen for the colour eggs they lay

I've got 10 and we average 5/6 eggs a day although they're all a few years old now. Youngsters lay more. If you've got friends/family who will appreciate any eggs going spare and, given how many eggs you want, get at least 6 hens. I started with 4 and it wasn't enough!

Badroly, we have a big flock at my secondary work so i get to bring eggs home (won't be there much longer due to move of main job hence getting own chickens). I select on colour !

I won't have problems shifting excess eggs - i work in a police station !

Better to get too many hens and sell/give away the excess eggs. People always love being given fresh eggs.

We started with 4, lost 1 to the fox, built a super-duper run and then bought 3 more. It's like gang warfare between the big girls and the new girls. And they are racist. I wanted a Light Sussex hybrid among all the gingers, and she is picked on mercilessly when there's food about. Egg production varies wildly between none and 5 at the moment but they seem to go off laying when it's been really hot.

In hindsight I wish we had bought 6 to start with and then there'd be none of this scrapping - though it is slowly getting better (nearly 2 months on!)

I want quail next. I'm trying convince dh. Teeny tiny scotch eggs in our packed lunches...

So my plan is:

2 white ranger
2 brown ranger
2 marans coucou
1 blue haze
1 marans cuivree