How many chicks are enough?

[Chicky Babe]

I have 16 dual purpose birds so far, six of which were sexed pullets. I am going for 24 total but it may be next spring before I add anymore. If I am tempted by some EE's it may be much sooner! As a child a neighbor raised some and I remember being so in awe of the colorful eggs. I just know the boys would be too!

 

[what did I do]

I read that if you eat 2 eggs a day you should have 3 chickens. I think 3 chickens per person is the right number. If you only eat eggs every few days you can get by with less.

Good luck with your birds. There is a thing called chicken math I'm learning about it.

 

[CarolJ]

Decide why you're keeping chickens (eggs, meat, entertainment, etc.). Then decide how many chickens you need to fulfill those needs. I started out with 7 pullets a year ago. I now have a laying flock of 20 hens plus 3 roosters. With the 20 layers, I have more than enough eggs for myself and my grown children's families - plus a few extra dozen each week to sell and/or give away to friends and neighbors. I also have three pens of chickens I plan to breed for hatching eggs and chicks to sell.

It IS addicting - especially when you first get into it. However, if you keep your purpose in mind, it'll be a lot easier.

 

[Nickichicki]

I started with 6 laying hens and have 10 5 week olds and on may 9th I am getting 16 more fluffy butts to join in We like eggs too and are a family of 5 so we will eat all we want and sell the rest to send my kids to summer camp

 

[CatUT]

We started out with 6 and discovered that my kids really like to eat eggs when we don't have to buy them. One of my daughters will only eat the eggs we get and won't touch store eggs. So we now have 6 more hens and hope that this will prevent us from running out too often. BTW - there is 8 of us at our house.

 

[BarefootMom]

Depends on how much you love chicks! 3 would not be enough for me, but last year I had around 140 at one time. lol. Right now I have 10 2 week olds, 2 3 week olds, 5 1 week ducklings, and they are hatching right now. Also have 66 eggs in the incubator due May 10th. We love chicks around here.

We have 32 layers too... I sell eggs and we eat a lot of eggs.

Just bought 5 4 month olds on Saturday.

We can easily eat a dozen eggs for breakfast - family of 4.

 

[MissChikaDee]

We started with 9 chicks, 3 turned out to be roos. Out of the 6 hens the two of us had enough for our needs and some to give away.

I agree, it is very addicting. We now have 20. Chicken math got a hold of me this spring.

 

[Apyl]

This is my first time doing chickens and hopefully will contiue for years to come. I started with 30 chicks and now they are 8 weeks old and I'm down to 24. We lost a few the first week then had 1 drown in the duck pool. Ours are purely livestock, they will provide eggs and meat, and will reproduce to provide us with more meat eventually and any extra females I dont want will be sold to cover costs. We also added 8 ducks. Again they are here to give us eggs, meat, and babies. Plus we like watching them.

So really everyones number will be differnt, it all depends what you want them for and how many people you are wanting to provide for.

 

[cici_p]

My first thought when I saw the heading: how many chicks are enough?

There is no such number!
You will never have enough!

actually, I think the appropriate math term might be
n=enough chicks where n=((((((n+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1). . .

Just fair warning.

Edited to say: How can you possibly have enough when clear tupperware "brooders" at walmart are only $12 a piece?

 

[Birde]

You have too many chicks when you don't know how many you have & you run out off brooder space & use a large plastic storage container at night when its too cool outside to leave them all out. OMG that's me