How many eggs do you want? Consider how many eggs you want, the chicken breed, if you intend to sell any, and prepare for a slowdown in production during the winter.
I’m about to acquire my first flock. How many chickens do I need?
The answer is different for everyone. When you plan to acquire your first flock of chickens, it’s easy to get carried away. There are so many wonderful and interesting breeds available, and you might just want to have them all – but your flock’s size should depend on your available space and your reasons for venturing into backyard poultry.
How many eggs do you want? One handy method of figuring out how many chickens to keep is working backward from how many eggs you consume per week. For example, let’s say you only want a small flock of laying hens to cover your egg needs. If your family eats two dozen eggs per week on average, you’ll probably do great with 4 to 5 productive layers that give you 5 to 6 eggs each per week.
Of course, your calculations will be different if you’re planning to raise meat birds or if you’re also hoping to sell farm-fresh eggs.
Consider the chicken breed. Pullets start laying at about 18 to 22 weeks. After that, the average hen lays about 250 eggs in her first productive year. The exact number of eggs your hens produce will depend on different factors, starting with the breed you choose.
For example, Rhode Island Reds; Leghorns; and various hybrids, such as Golden Comets and Red Stars, are super-layers that will easily give you 300 eggs per year. Meanwhile, the average Silkie will only lay 100 to 120 eggs per year, because these adorable, fluffy birds go broody often and are therefore inconsistent layers.
Of course, egg production won’t be your only consideration when choosing a chicken breed. For instance, if you live in a hot climate, you might want to go for the Andalusian breed or the Minorca breed. These heat-tolerant chickens will thrive in sweltering weather year-round but will also give you somewhat fewer eggs compared with heavy layers. You might need a larger flock if you opt for a lower-producing breed.
Prepare for a cycle of abundance and scarcity. Egg production depends on light. All chicken breeds produce more eggs when the days are at their longest, and slow down or cease laying during the shorter days of the fall and winter months. Unless you use artificial lighting in your coop during winter, you’ll get only a few eggs from October through February.
All told, I’d recommend starting small with 3 to 4 hens. You can always add to your flock later, when you get more comfortable with raising backyard chickens.