I have 5 acres and am interested in having some chickens for eggs, how may chickens should I start w

Hi and welcome. I have speckled maran and sussex hens. I do not have a rooster and the hens lay every day. Their eggs are fantastic. Good luck and let us know what you decide to get.

 

Hi and welcome to BYC from northern Michigan

All hens will lay eggs without a rooster, so no need to have one if you don't want one. Most small families find that 3-4 hens lay enough eggs to keep them stocked up.

Google the Henderson chicken chart for information on different breeds and their temperature sensitivities.

 

Glad to have you here! If you are like most of us, I would recomend that you make your coop a tad bit bigger to accomodate more chickens in the future just in case you want more.

 

from California! I agree with the above posters.

 

Well 4-5 might be sufficent, but trust me. It is EXTREMELY hard to get a a small number of chicks, for 1. A good price. and 2. The type you want. It was so hard for me to get a small number of the type of chicken that I wanted that I just decided to go with two types that I settled on. The problem was that all the website hatcheries either had a minimum of 15 or 25 or they didn't sell a mixture of different types, or had a narrow variety of them. I suggest if you have 5 acres that you get 15-25 if you are serious about chickens. Unless you don't really care about what type, then you can go ahead and just get 4 or 5. Hope this helped.

 

The place to start is with how many eggs per week you would use. It's just the wife and me, and we cook quite a bit. 4 hens are more than keeping up with us, and we give our friends a half dozen pretty much once a week or so. Ours are young, so they're very consistent now. I've read they'll start slacking off in a year or two. So, we may add a couple more then, but for now, 4 is fine. We're getting 4 eggs per day 2 or 3 days per week, 3 eggs a couple days a week, and 2 a couple days a week. Never less than 2.

 

Start with 5 and build a coop and run that will hold 20.

Cackle Hatchery will sell you five pullets. They call them City-Town Pullet Specials or Small Order Specials. My pet chicken will sell as few as 3 depending on your zip code.

If you wait until the spring, you can buy chicks from a local feed store. Some have a minimum but others will sell you as few or as many as your want.

Enjoy them,

Ron

 

Greetings from Kansas, treefrogparker, and ! I agree with the above posts. I might add, a rooster is good if you a) need fertilized eggs for hatching, and b) he can be a protector for the hens, and c) he kind of keeps the hens in line via the pecking order. But not necessary at all for egg production. Good luck!

 

Welcome to BYC!!! You may want to make your post over in the Florida thread. Lots of friendly people and you can probably get answers to your questions and a few chicks or hens from someone local: Here is the link: FLORIDA!!!!!ALWAYS SUNNY SIDE UP!!!