I started with two dozen for the two of us. Figured to share with two of our children, grown adults living in their own homes. That was 6 yrs ago come April 2014. We still have 5 of that original flock being now 3 Barred Plymouth Rock and 2 Black Australorpes. They still lay eggs now and then along with 5 others we now have that are some 8 months old. We have more than enough eggs for the two of us, but with the threat of higher food prices due to the extended drought out west, we are adding 3 or 4 more. We will supplement our afternoon or evening meals with egg salad and boiled eggs so as to keep our grocery costs down a bit.
We have a 1900 sq ft run, 6 ft steel mesh welded wire fence set in concrete with a fence charger on it. It is covered by 2" square netting overhead. We have never suffered a loss to any predator since getting all of it up. Hawks got 4 before that netting was up.
You need to calculate flock losses because you will have them by doing free-range. Only way to prevent that is to do their entire range area like we did. That is how the pros do it. I have seen videos of their operations and they spend a good deal of resources on netting overhead. Nothing else works for airborne predators in my experience being as I first experimented with silver streamers criss-crossing the run. Only netting stopped the killing in my case.
If you have the space, I would advise doing it like we did rather than running them on your whole property. Ours are like pets anyway and if we gave them the run of the place they would roost on our porches and poop there
while waiting for us to bring treats.
Down side is that they will destroy all greenery inside of their run unless it is a lot bigger than ours is.
You will have to keep future erosion possibilities in mind as you plan the thing.
Two people in a setting like ours would have all of the eggs they would want and some to give away with only 10 layers. If you go that route, be sure to allow for later cross fencing of the place so as to introduce youngsters to your flock as those age. Unprotected youngsters will be killed by the older birds.
If you go total free range, do calculate for flock losses.
Good luck with your endeavor.
We have a 1900 sq ft run, 6 ft steel mesh welded wire fence set in concrete with a fence charger on it. It is covered by 2" square netting overhead. We have never suffered a loss to any predator since getting all of it up. Hawks got 4 before that netting was up.
You need to calculate flock losses because you will have them by doing free-range. Only way to prevent that is to do their entire range area like we did. That is how the pros do it. I have seen videos of their operations and they spend a good deal of resources on netting overhead. Nothing else works for airborne predators in my experience being as I first experimented with silver streamers criss-crossing the run. Only netting stopped the killing in my case.
If you have the space, I would advise doing it like we did rather than running them on your whole property. Ours are like pets anyway and if we gave them the run of the place they would roost on our porches and poop there
Two people in a setting like ours would have all of the eggs they would want and some to give away with only 10 layers. If you go that route, be sure to allow for later cross fencing of the place so as to introduce youngsters to your flock as those age. Unprotected youngsters will be killed by the older birds.
Good luck with your endeavor.
