The number of chicks with which to start

[newchickmom09]

I agree with everyone else. I only wanted 5 at first but we ordered 7 (so it begins) in spring now I want to order at least 3 more.

I need to know the minimum number of chicks to start.
3
Should they be of various ages?
No, keep them the same age...its easier and don't have to worry about older ones really hurting the younger.
Should I include older chickens?
no, unless you just buy older chickens and no chicks
What is the minimum area needed to start.
If you get chicks you need a brooder at first (old dog kennel works great) then there coop should be big enough for them all to fit on roosts and not be squished and each to have there own nesting boxes. They should have a run or something so they can run around and get there engery out. The sizes of the area that they need to start all depends on how many you get and if they are large or bantam size chickens.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
So true!

I started with 7, now have 11 and already have hatching eggs lined up for spring!

 

[cococrisp]

Wow!? Is it really that addicting? I'm starting out with just five little chicks. They are soo cute but with the amount they poop, I'm not really sure I'd want too many more.

But, tehy are cute, cute, cute, those little fuzzballs!

So you have any pics of your new chicks?

 

[bufforp89]

Also dont assume that you can pick one kind of chicken and be happy with it. Mix it up. I started off with all Buff Orps and now realize I should have started with a variety. Now I want everything I see but cant because I have no room due to too many BOs.

 

[Akane]

I suppose the absolute minimum would be 3 so if one dies you still have 2. Chickens are social and should not be alone. Other than that like others said we need to know the minimum for what. If your goal is to never have to buy eggs then there is a huge difference between 1 person that only bakes occasionally with eggs and doesn't eat breakfast often and a family with 4-5 members that like omelets and scrambled eggs every morning plus in between. There's probably a difference of about 10-20 chickens there. I know I can eat 4 eggs myself with other stuff and occasionally to empty eggs out of the fridge I've just cooked a dozen eggs and ate them.

If you get straight run chicks you have to account for roosters so buy about twice what you need and have a plan to get rid of them. That's not even taking in to account bantams or standards since bantam eggs will be about half the size. Others want to get chickens to get in to showing and breeding a rare breed or uncommon color which would require a different number and quality of birds. Or there's meat chickens which would again depend how many people you were feeding and how often and dual purpose breeds which don't usually lay as many eggs as lighter laying breeds but are also ok for butchering.

Space depends a little on whether you are free ranging, letting them roam a small fenced yard, or penning them up all the time. The less space they have out of the coop and the more time they have to spend in the coop the more space you want to give them. Approximately you want a minimum of 2sq ft per bantam and 4sq ft per standard.

 

[felidaet]

I also agree with everyone. Allow a lot of extra space. I originally planned to get 12 chicks last spring. I reserved them from a local feed store. Then chick season came along. One of the feed stores was offering 5 free chicks with the purchase of 25 lbs of feed. They were pullets and were all breeds that sounded interesting to me. (TRhe only catch was that you could not choose which chicks you were getting. They grabbed the first five closest to them and put them in a box and handed it to you. (The brooder had 500 little chicks in it!) I went ahead and jumped on this deal and so the count is 17. Then my local feewd store called me and said they could not get two of the chicks I reserved. I checked with another store and found they had a shipment arriving the same day and none were reserved. I went in to buy two and left with 3 (I still wish I had kept all 5 that I was selecting between (They were EE's). I finally ended up with 18 this last spring. One turned out to be a rooster, which I re-homed via craigs list.

We have really enjoyed out flock of 17 pullets the last few months. We did not have any idea how enjoyable they would be. And they are easier to care for then I expected. We started talking a few weeks ago about how we always have a waiting list for our eggs. Selling our extra eggs is paying for maintaining the flock right now. In the spring and summer we will likely make a very small profit. We thought that maybe it would be nice to add a few more pullets to our flock this spring...

So we started doing some calculating.

I was wise when I built our run.

I read on many threads to make it at lease 10 sq feet per bird. I decided to up it to 25 sq feet per bird. I put a lot of work into the run and built it with a roof. We have lots of Eagles and hawks in the area. It is also wet pretty much from Mid Oct to Mid April. The size of the run allows us to easily expand the flock by 25 - 30 birds! But the coop only allows us to expand by 3 or 4. I can not afford to build another coop this spring. My daughters have a very nice outdoor play house they never use. I showed them lots of pictures of chicks and asked them if they would like more next year. They gave in and said I can move it next to the run and convert it into a second coop. I currently have a wish list of 22 additional chicks that I am hoping to get this spring.

 

[KandJsmama]

We started with six and have not expanded our flock just yet...If I could do it differently I would have picked more breeds instead of just the two we have.

 

[crazy huhn]

Quote:
Love it: 5 free chicks with the purchase of #25 bag of feed. Lets do the math here, I go through at least #100 a month. So that makes 20 new chicks. Ahhhhhhhhhhh, do you mind if I give our feed store your contact info or better your feed stores contact info?

 

[Happy Chooks]

Cococrisp...........Yes, they really are that addicting.

felidaet.......If my feed store offered that I'd be in so much trouble. I'd be coming home with chicks every month.

 

[HenMamma]

Two years ago I decided to get three chickens for eggs. It was may and I had no idea what I was doing. I ended up ordering them from a local feed mill. When I went to TSC to pick up my feeders and whatnot I happened upon the last two chicks of the season. They were three weeks old and I didn't want to leave them in the store! They were straight run, I ended up with one male and one female white rock. The date came for my other chicks to arrive, but the call never came. When I called the mill they said that somehow they had lost my order. Devastated I called everywhere and found out there was a Family Farm and Home on the other side of town. I jetted over and found ten babies to take home. Everytime I went in to buy feed I would pick-up another chick or two. DH noticed that the box I was using as a brooder had lots of different chicks in it, and more than he said I could have. He built me an 8x8 coop, with the express promise of not filling it to capacity. I didn't, yet.

Then, this summer, the chicks came in again and I was entranced again. I wanted to bring home more, but DH wouldn't have it, so I brought home turkey poults instead. A few weeks later DH went in with me and fell in love with the baby ducks and geese, so we went home with those as well. All summer my coop was full, and I went back to school. Working fifty hours a week and taking a full load of classes while raising a family is hard, so I decided to get rid of everyone. They are all in the freezer now.

A week after we butchered everyone DH and I were cleaning out the coop and he looks at me and says, "Ya know what? I miss chickens. Next spring we can get a couple more."

Even though it was mine to begin with doesn't mean that he didn't like them too.

Last week I found two survivors, one with a nestful and moved them into the coop. DH and I have agreed that we are only going to keep an additional ten chickens, of the same breed, as well as five turkeys (seasonally). Hopefully when the chick bug comes back around next spring, I will be able to keep my word.

Moral of the story, It doesn't matter how many you start with, you always end up with more than you plan for. Chickens are addicting.