People with more than 10 chickens

[My2butterflies]

I kind of wish I had more eggs... we have 7 full grown hens, but we only get 2 or so eggs a day, and sometimes they come from Mochi, our silkie, so they’re bantam eggs. Hoping with our 8 new chicks we will get more eggs.

If you were close I’d happily share!
I have such a consistent amount of eggs and my guineas haven’t even started laying yet
I know I’ve over done it this year. I have 20 chickens already(one roo), plus and order of 13 more coming next month. On top of that I hatched chicks and ment to sell all of them. We decided to keep three and still have three others that haven’t sold yet. In the end I’ll have at least three Roos, possibly more since 3 types are coming as straight run.

 

[Appalachickens]

I have been considering an Instant Pot. My mother bought me a traditional pressure cooker that I've never learned to use because she bought a small one, saying, "You won't always be feeding 6 people." It's packed in a box somewhere because I do still have teen boys at home.

I had two teenaged boys for a while and it was like feeding 6 people for each of them! The younger one is 24 and still packs away an astonishing amount of food.

 

[FeleciaSB06]

I'm looking for honest opinions of your experiences. Is falling into the chicken math zone always better ( more breeds yay!) but maybe not? I know folks have different situations (selling eggs, need the meat , etc). I'm perfectly fine with extra eggs. Not using my birds for meat. I get too attached. I also greatly miss when my flock were chicks and being able to repeat that process every year would be awesome.

Basically urban owner here and I'm super jealous of you guys that can have as many as you want. Our city restrictions are not too bad but I have limitations to how many chickens we can own and have to monitor the noise. Boo!

I'm 34 working on a goal of someday owning a small home with a few acres. We are in Colorado and it is extremely expensive to obtain that kind of dream here, unless you go to a crappy part of the state. I don't want to leave CO

Wondering if it's really worth it just to collect more chickens My current home is in a very sought after market and near everything + we wouldn't have too much concern over keeping stable jobs if life happens.

We live in Maryland and just started last year. I was determined to have chickens. My husband was upset at first, but loves it. We don't have to worry about how old our eggs are, and fresh eggs are the best tasting. I just read the 'How to Clean & Store Fresh Eggs' post. We were doing it wrong. Lol. Anyway, we started out with 4 birds. We live outside city limits, and have a little more than half an acre. We aren't supposed to have that many, and plan on getting a few more this year. We have ISA Browns. And I absolutely love them. Chickens are the Easiest animals ever to care for. And the kids love it too. Our neighbors have been pretty chill about us having chickens. Our first 4, 3 were Roos, and Brownie, our first female was picked up by something. We have hawks so bad out here. We let our chickens roam. The neighborhood loves to see them too. :/
Now we have 7 ISA browns. They are the funniest. Stomper stops every time I go to pet her, we have Hyena is always just noisy. And they follow me everywhere.
If it's something that you are enjoying, do it. Just make sure your neighbors are ok with it. If you have a Roo that is crowing all day, it will become bothersome, and they could report you. We didn't have that problem, it is something that bothered my husband. I'm definitely heading to get some locally today. I really want an Easter Egger....Hopefully we don't get more Roos...but getting them locally when they aren't sexed, it's more likely to happen than not! I wanted to hatch some, maybe later....

 

[Vicker]

Chicken math is a powerful force to fight, but your situation really does have to be the deciding factor. My living situation doesn't have any restrictions on how many I can have. The biggest flock was about 30. They free-ranged and had an easy set-up in a barn stall for a coop. We had a bad predator problem, so I had to stop free-ranging. Next, my husband decided to use the barn for large livestock, so I had to move them to a smaller coop. They totally eradicate any vegetation in their run. A portable coop and run helps, but if I have too many, they have to be moved more often than I have time to manage. Depending on losses or aging-out of laying, I'll add more every year or so. I usually add more than I need to replace the others, though. They are so hard to resist. Then I get them home and kick myself for bringing on all the work it takes until they get big enough to transition in with the rest of the flock. I say that 20 is my definite cut-off, but then, chicken math . . . . . . . . . .

 

[LMN1966]

I'm looking for honest opinions of your experiences. Is falling into the chicken math zone always better ( more breeds yay!) but maybe not? I know folks have different situations (selling eggs, need the meat , etc). I'm perfectly fine with extra eggs. Not using my birds for meat. I get too attached. I also greatly miss when my flock were chicks and being able to repeat that process every year would be awesome.

Basically urban owner here and I'm super jealous of you guys that can have as many as you want. Our city restrictions are not too bad but I have limitations to how many chickens we can own and have to monitor the noise. Boo!

I'm 34 working on a goal of someday owning a small home with a few acres. We are in Colorado and it is extremely expensive to obtain that kind of dream here, unless you go to a crappy part of the state. I don't want to leave CO

Wondering if it's really worth it just to collect more chickens My current home is in a very sought after market and near everything + we wouldn't have too much concern over keeping stable jobs if life happens.

Thank you for your post! You will certainly get tons of information here!
If and when you buy more hens, buy them all at once. If you don't and add more to the flock, they will fight, you have to separate them for awhile. It's a pecking order. We live on a farm where's there's no restrictions on how many we can have. We have 15 Azure Blue Hens (baby Blue eggs) , 5 red sex link (brown eggs) and two Cockerels. (Black sex link and Barred Rock) good luck with your flock!

 

[LMN1966]

Thank you for your post! You will certainly get tons of information here!
If and when you buy more hens, buy them all at once. If you don't and add more to the flock, they will fight, you have to separate them for awhile. It's a pecking order. We live on a farm where's there's no restrictions on how many we can have. We have 15 Azure Blue Hens (baby Blue eggs) , 5 red sex link (brown eggs) and two Cockerels. (Black sex link and Barred Rock) good luck with your flock!

Oh we live on a 12.5 acres!

 

[Mtman]

I'm looking for honest opinions of your experiences. Is falling into the chicken math zone always better ( more breeds yay!) but maybe not? I know folks have different situations (selling eggs, need the meat , etc). I'm perfectly fine with extra eggs. Not using my birds for meat. I get too attached. I also greatly miss when my flock were chicks and being able to repeat that process every year would be awesome.

Basically urban owner here and I'm super jealous of you guys that can have as many as you want. Our city restrictions are not too bad but I have limitations to how many chickens we can own and have to monitor the noise. Boo!

I'm 34 working on a goal of someday owning a small home with a few acres. We are in Colorado and it is extremely expensive to obtain that kind of dream here, unless you go to a crappy part of the state. I don't want to leave CO

Wondering if it's really worth it just to collect more chickens My current home is in a very sought after market and near everything + we wouldn't have too much concern over keeping stable jobs if life happens.

We have an acre in the country in Iowa. We started out about nine months ago with the intent on starting out with a dozen. Then my wife went to a sale with a friend who raises chickens. She came back with fifty!

We’re down to twenty-eight and are getting a dozen eggs per day. We give a lot away and my wife sells them at work.
E we have too many rosters that we’re going to butcher next weekend.
We love raising them and just watching them. They can be funny and sounds like prehistoric animals.

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

I am in the every other year add a few camp. 2021 is a no new chick year for me.
I am up to 15, I have enough space for many more but I got 8 eggs yesterday and that is plenty.
I have never culled non layers, I have two leghorns and I cannot remember the last time I saw a white egg. Maybe some chicken math subtraction is in the future, but likely not, They still make compost.

 

[KJsFlock]

I average 25 -40 chickens. My hen house is an 8x10 room in the barn that we converted to a coop. It easily holds 40 when we are at capacity. Right now we are at 26 chickens. Next year I will probably restock with another dozen. We have a separate smaller coop also in the barn for babies. Both have chicken doors to outside where they free range. I sell my extra eggs to friends for $2. They try to give me more but I tell them the $2 helps with feed. Unless the weather is really bad and I have to lock them in for several days. I only have to clean about every two months. Using corn cob bedding has made the job a breeze on the concrete floor.

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

$2

A dozen?
Wow that is a good deal for your friends.

I can get 6-8$ a dozen if I did not eat them all