How many hens would it take too.......

Depends on the breed, for sure. But I would say 30 laying breed hens would bring you about 2 dozen a day, give or take... some days you'd get 30, but other days you may only get 20.... and in the winter, you might only get 5.

I have 22 chickens, but some are banties.... and im hoping to get about a dozen and a half a day in prime laying season. For the last 3-4 months, I was getting 2 or 3 a day until recently. They are stepping up production and im getting about 9 a day currently.

 

My chickens lay well. But they do slow up as they age. So, the trick is to keep adding new pullets every year & cull the older birds as fit.The pullets are normally the best layers. So, you always need them to keep your production up.

 

To reliably get 2 dozen a day, you'd need at LEAST 30 hens.

And they'd need to be Leghorn and Black Sex links....

 

I have 31 hens in one coop. They are of decent laying breeds. RIR, RSL, BSL, Production reds, 2BR, 3NHR And 1 EE and 2 BCMs. I light my coop so they get 14 hours of light. And most are February 2011 chicks. And yes I give them lots of TLC.
I get between 20-28 eggs aday. The BCMs (black copper marans) are not the best layers but I love chocolate eggs!

 

wbruder, how old are your chickens? Are you providing extra light? I also live in Portland, all my chickens and ducks are 6-10 months old, I have no extra light and out of 20+ birds only two are laying. I'm getting about one egg a day, maybe nine a week...

I just added a light to go on in the morning this week, I started at 6:30 and am moving it back 15 min every other day. I figure they had a winter rest and it's time to start producing.

 

Nope, I don't provide light. My birds are anywhere from 2.5 years old to 6 months.... with lots in the 9 month range. My EEs are laying machines right now, as are, suprisingly, my banties... they must be gearing up to go broody.

Where the heck are the reast of my smiley face options???

 

Out of 12 pullets/hens similar age range to yours, only my silkies are laying - those little gals seem to only take broody breaks, not winter breaks...lol. My 22 week old LF girls should be laying soon

 

Im hoping my Silkies wait a couple more weeks til I can get my Araucauna eggs! I can force one Silkie and one Cochin banty to go broody together, so im hoping they can just hold out on. The urge un til February!

 

32 hens. White eggs- Leghorn. Brown eggs- ISA Brown, RSL, etc. Raise new flock each spring, replace older flock each fall. Or, buy point of lay pullets each August. That's how it's done for a business.
At the second winter solstice, or earlier, hens pretty much shut down for moulting. Laying virtually stops for 6 weeks or longer. If you flock is uniformly the same age, you'll leave your customers high and dry.
This program is the only way I know of to always get 2 dozen eggs per day, every day, year round.