Number of chicks/ens you really plan on having... really..

[Woods_Woman]

I'm in the city, and allowed 3. Currently I have 3 hens outside, and two 8 wk old's here in the brooder still. Also got 18 eggs in the incubator in which I'd like to keep another 3...I hope 8 will be my limit.

 

[HenMamma]

Last year I had over sixty and was overwhelmed. Chickens, ducks , turkey's, geese. I learned my lesson and butchered everyone. THe only ones that made it were a BO who was sitting on a nest and a cali grey leghorn. The first time they had chicks at the feed store I caved and brought home 5 EE chicks. I am limiting myself this year to add 25 sr Salmon F's, 10 + silkies and 10 standard bronze turkeys. I only plan on keeping the best 15 Salmons, 10 silkies and 4 turkeys. I have an 8x8 coop that they wil winter in, but we are building a "summer house" for the turkey's next to the coop. The silkies will live in the "Garden cottage" until winter. I find them useful in the garden without destroying my plants.

That said, I try to get everything I eed from the feed store at once, because every time I am in there I end up buying more. I have limited myself though. I can only leave with silkies and EE's.

 

[StupidBird]

Limiting myself to the number that can comfortably fit in the coop. Today's coop can hold 5. The Next Coop? Wellll....
I live in a rural subdivision in a traditionally farming county being swallowed by Atlanta suburbia. The farm behind us is foreclosed, and because it's on a flooding creek, can't - shouldn't - be built on. I can't afford it. HOA died twenty years ago, the covenants expired, and there is no law I can find regulating chickens. Dogs yes, but not enforced unless someone gets bit.

I want about a dozen, for rainbow egg basket, and a silkie to travel around with me and just mess with people's heads.

 

[calicokat]

It is like a sickness really, isn't it?

I planned on two. Even as DH was building the coop, the plan became 3. Then, it got to be little chick season, and well, 2 little chicks won't be THAT much more, right?

Then the neighbor girl wasn't taking good care of hers, all died but one - and it came to live with me. Then that stupid, stupid Craigs List! I found 2 Ameraucanas and decided to get them. SOMEHOW while I was talking with the guy who had those two, I ended up agreeing to buy 2 polish as well.

Well, and of course when we went to our first 4H meeting they explained that you really want to get good "Show Quality" birds for 4H. So we really HAD to order a couple of chicks, well, I mean, somehow we ordered 4.

And then, really the darndest thing happened -- when we went to pick up our 4 chicks a month ago, I'll be doggonned if we didn't end up with 5 - Stupid Chicken Math!!

So, for me, out in the country with no rules (i.e. the sky's the limit!) I wanted 2 egg laying hens, and somehow I have 15.

God alone knows what might happen this year

 

[mayabear13]

We just moved so I'm not sure of the actual rules here. It's a suburb but it feels like the country and I know there's a guy down the street with about 60 chickens. Of course, he has more land than me. I only intended to keep 5-6 of my current batch of chicks but I am already so in love with all of them it might end up being around 8...? Racoons got into our old coop so we are building a new one and my husband is already talking like he's going to make it MUCH bigger. I swear that he loves those fuzzy butts more than me!

 

[dwegg]

Quote:

well I'm not technically an outlaw but when I decided to get chickens my DH agreed on 4 as we are first timers..I now have 7 laying ladies and now 2 chickies.

 

[4CiTyCHicHENs]

Quote:
Im allowed 4... SSSSHHHHHH!!!! !!!! hubby & I plan on 5 maybe 6... I plan to buy 8 from a hatchery... a friend has 15 right now so I can always pass some off on her!! LOL!

 

[Chickiemama1010]

i live in a rural/agricultural area. No limits. "Neighbors" on both sides have chickens. I hear their roosters crow far off in the distance. I have a belgian antwerp bantam (so sweet she is) and some sort of silver laced bantam hen that thinks she's a roo (she crows)I also have 2 RSL hens and a RSL roo. These were all freebie foster chickens that were my friends' flock, and they had to be re-homed TODAY. I have an acre so rather than they be killed for no good reason, I took them in, much to the dismay of my hubby. Boy did I have a lot to learn about chickens....but....now I am hooked

I just ordered a dozen black australorps from Meyer. Im lucky enough to live 4miles +/- from them, so I am just going to pick them up (and to my delight their is no shipping, handling, packaging, processing or other fee for that-just the price of the chicks) I pick em up March 16th. It depends on the ratio of hens/roos in the straight run, but at least for the time being I will have 17. I really dont want more than 1 roo, but I do want a broody to hatch eggs at some point. The RSL roo will do the trick, but I am working on DH to let me keep a BA roo too. I hear the ratio is 1 roo for every 10 or so hens. I guess we wil just have to see how the current roo is with the new roo. He is a bit of a jerk at times, and I feel like I put some work into him to get him to stop attacking me regularly, so I dont necessarily want him to be dinner, but on the other hand, I dont see why I should keep a jerk roo when I have the potential to have a pleasant BA roo in the mix. We will figure it out in a few months I suppose.....

Either way I am sooooo excited for my babies.

 

[Tanichca]

I'm only allowed to have 7, according to Mom (we live on 5 acres outside tucson, in the middle of nowhere so no "maximum chickens" laws here!) but I might sneak in a couple more....

 

[chixie]

i was only gonna have 7... now I have 35 and counting..........