what are we?

[farnorth]

Better to get them all at once and they grow up together. mixing chickens of different ages as you go is an art that takes a while to learn....chickens do not always integrate well...bigger/older will almost always pick on littler/younger. Four is okay number. I started with six it was a nice number of chickens to have.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

yay okay great thank you! we just moved and finally have space and i finally got permission from dh lol to have chickens what is a good amount for a flock? is 4 fine or should i have more/ also should i get all the chicks at the same time or will the get along as i add?

That is a hard question to answer as it depends on many personal factors such as how many eggs you want/need as well as how much space you have as well as your purpose for having chickens.

Chickens are flock animals, but you've already got a small flock at 4, so they won't need more to be happy. (Never keep a single, solitary chicken as that will be a very lonely bird indeed.) If you are keeping them mainly as pets, you don't need to add any more, unless you simply want more and have the space.

It is often best to add all at once if you only want a small one time flock and want to keep them mostly as pets until old age. However, it is possible to add more chickens later on. I recommend only adding small chicks, after they have grown to about 8 weeks of age, purchased from reputable sellers for biosecurity (risk of illness). Avoid adding in older birds, especially rescue or auction birds. They often bring illness and parasites.

If your main purpose is to have chickens for eggs, then you will need to consider your egg usage and a more long term plan for flock numbers and dynamics. After deciding how many eggs you need per week, you will want to plan a rotation process renewing (refreshing) the flock by adding in new ones each spring or every 6 months, "retiring" the older layers to the stewing pot or Craigslist at around 2 years of age, 3 at most, depending upon the breed or hybrid type (and individual bird).

Overall, commercial layers (the types you have) lay very well for the first 2 years of their life, then taper off. My rule of thumb is to get half again the number of chickens as I want eggs per day as I don't artificially light in the winter, a time when the hens naturally slack off to recharge their body cycles. Since I need a steady supply of eggs, I refresh my flock so that I have 1/4 older birds (larger eggs but less prolific), then half first year (prolific but slightly smaller eggs), then 1/4 coming to age to refresh the flock.

Your hens will come into lay around 5 months of age (anywhere from 18 to 24 weeks), and then these 4 hens together will likely give you 3 eggs a day if not 4 for many months, even during that first winter if they came into lay before the winter days get shorter...although these will likely be coming into lay mid-September so they might not have a good first winter lay but delay that until spring. Expect half that number in the winter months after that first winter...ie 2 eggs a day. After the first year of laying, usually their second winter, they will molt and you won't get much or even anything until they finish molting. RIR's and RSL's molt pretty quickly, so you shouldn't be out of eggs. or down on eggs, but a month or two at most. You can store eggs for months in the fridge for the winter slack times, or have the next generation in place to pick up the slack.

All that to say...So if your family can go through an average of 3 eggs a day (which btw will be almost 2 dozen per week once they get laying), you are good for several years, longer with good care as how quickly these first birds taper off in laying as they age past 2 years often greatly depends upon their care. Prevention is the greatest part of chicken care; and good food, cleanliness, the space to exercise and roam in safety, and periodic de-worming and poultry dusting is the greatest part of prevention

With typical care, your ladies will be wonderful friends and egg producers for a number of years, and you won't need more unless you want more chickens or need more eggs or meat.

Lady of McCamley

 

[eggs4three]

Wow thank you so much for all of the information,sounds like i need more chicks haha i have found more locally...black australops and leghorns... are these good breeds? i have a three y/o if that matters...

 

[Paislee]

I recently got two chicks from my local feed and seed store they usually only carry females and I got one that looks just like your yellow ones and I was told that she is a golden sexlink. Hope that helps you out a little bit.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Wow thank you so much for all of the information,sounds like i need more chicks haha i have found more locally...black australops and leghorns... are these good breeds? i have a three y/o if that matters...

Australorps and Leghorns are very good layers. The Australorps will be calmer birds, and the Leghorns tend to be skittish and noisy (talkative) if that matters where you are.

With a 3 year old, I would not recommend a rooster unless you are willing to make sure the roo stays in line. Roosters and small kids don't often make a good mix unless you have an especially tame rooster or you personally make sure he recognizes his place....assuming you don't have an overly aggressive rooster (which some become).

If you can't have roosters, I recommend loading up on the sexlinks as you know when you purchase them they are females and have no risk of getting a male.

There are black sexlinks too...which are very pretty birds and very good layers. I've had several Black Sexlinks go broody, and it is fun to let them hatch chicks (purchase fertile eggs from a local farmer). Great learning experience for the kids!

Good luck.
Lady of McCamley