What's the most "comfortable" flock size for 1 person to care for?

[Silkie-Feet]

I'm only 14 yet i have 7 hens, 1 rooster, 1 goose, 3 ducks, and 24 five month olds. If you count that up that's 36 birds... They are very managable, i have one feeder and one waterer that i fill once daily. I think you should get a rooster, if you want one. roosters help feed, protect, and reproduce the flock. there's nothing like watching a broody mama with chicks under her... I hope you have a great experience with your chickens.

 

[larryj57]

We are a family of 2 the Wife and I. I stared with 1 Rooster and 6 Hens a year land a half later I have 65 chickens all Dominiques. I tried a few other breeds but when I stared looking to add some Domineeckers I had trouble finding any in my area so idecided I'd be the Dom supplier for this area, it has worked out great. I take care of the flock by myself with a little help from the Grandsons. In my experience a flock of 6 hens will usually produce more eggs than a family of 4 will consume.

 

[Cherstin]

Thank you, all. Beautiful responses. It's very easy to see that you're passionate about what you're doing, and why you're doing it.

I am learning a lot as I go, and you've all been more than helpful. To recap, the best advice seems to be to start small, build big, make monetary investments not in "bells and whistles" but it what is going to make my life easier (the areas of feeding, watering, cleaning). Thank you all so much. I have purchased a few books on the subjects which will arrive tomorrow, but it's always so much better to hear the advice of others as well.

Best of luck to all of you ... you really know how to make a person feel welcome. Thank you.

 

[gophert]

I have 3 hens for a my 4-person family. We get about 14-16 eggs a week, which is adequate, but we could eat more. I think 5 hens would be my max and 4 sounds perfect. My concerns would be cost of feed, amount of poop, and wear on the yard (they free-range). I have a SMALL yard--about 1/3 of an acre--so that factors in heavily.

One thing I notice is that somehow people who have more chickens often seem to get a lower percentage of fully laying hens. My friends have 14 hens but only get about 6-7 eggs per day. Friends with 8 hens seem to get about 4-5 per day. I don't know why this would be but it seems like I see it on these boards, too.

 

[briteday]

Make life easy for yourself with the proper feeders, water containers (and accessibility to water), location of coop, poop control, and choosing breed of chicken.

Family of three, started out with 6 point-of-lay Rhode Island reds. They started laying in Sept, layed like crazy all winter (we even started sharing and selling some eggs), did fine throughout the next year and then slowed down dramatically during the second winter. So the next spring we increased the flock to 12 birds (barred rocks, delawares, sussex) and sold the RIR's. Our egg production was not as good as it had been with the original RIR's, but we had more request for egg sales. Taking care of 12 birds was not much more than 6 but we did start to draw straws on carrying water out in the winter when the hose could not supply water. And hauling a 50# bag of food twice per month didn't seem to be much more trouble than hauling it once per month. And yet, we had even more requests for eggs. So the next spring we ordered 25 ISA brown chicks, and kept 5 pet birds from previous years. HUGE difference!!!!! Raising 25 chicks indoors was like...find a better way...it smells, there is constant chaos with conventional waterers being tipped, food constantly needs to be re-filled (and bought/hauled in from the car), bedding changed...constant work for all three of us (two working adults and full time college student so we are not home all at the same time so we had a notebook where we left notes about tasks performed for the next person). But we looked forward to the day the chicks could move out to the coop, and we just managed. We sold the hens from the previous year at a good price. It was also time to set up an automatic watering system (5 gallon nipple bucket hooked up to a hose with a heater for the winter, still had to haul one gallon of water out twice per day when opening and closing the pop door, but not bad) and a better feeding system. Thirty chickens eat about 50# of food per week, that mean you haul a bag of food to the coop every week (yes, we started avoiding each other's arrival, dreading the request to carry another bag of feed to the coop!). We had a pretty good set up for poop removal (poop hammock under roost) but it needs to be cleaned every week, and have a place to put the manure. We have a compost pile, but even that wasn't always enough space so we used it as fertilizer around our yard. And then feed prices went up and our egg customers began falling off as they needed to reduce their expenses. Charging $2/dozen (when/if they could pay that week plus the gas to take them eggs in some cases for elderly folks) became a burden. But I had already ordered next year's chicks. So I raised the chicks to POL, sold them off when they began laying, and only kept 4 pet birds from the flock. So that is where we are now. The 4 pets are not the greatest egglayers, nor the youngest birds. So for now, there seems to be enough eggs for the 4 of us as long as I don't go on a baking streak or think I can take a bunch of deviled eggs for a potluck at work. So next year I hope to raise about 4-6 ISA's again. And the 4 pet birds will most likely go with our daughter when she gets her own place.

I like to keep chickens, have done it with 4-30 birds. But remember to think about who is home to do the chores. They need to be let out at daylight (is someone in the house an early bird?) and closed up at dusk. Feeding and water can be done at the same time. But someone will also need to check for eggs as well, especially in a hot climate. Our area doesn't have many feed stores anymore, so someone has to go out of their way for feed, right now only once per month. Even when I had 30 birds I bought feed once per month, and stored it in the back of my station wagon until needed. We tried keeping the extra in the garage but the mice got to it. With 30 birds we had to completely clean the manure out 2x/week, 4-6 birds once per month works fine. And manure production is directly related to the amount of bedding you will buy as well. Lastly, if you are in it for eggs, limit the number of "pretty" birds (silkies, polish, whatever strikes your fancy) and stick to known egg producing breeds like RIR, rocks, hybrids. They will eat less and give more eggs. Feed is expensive right now and you may be disappointed in your costs if you are not getting many eggs.

 

[so lucky]

Briteday, what a great objective post! I would suggest to the original poster: Production will wax and wane. Eggs can be scrambled slightly and frozen, if you end up with too many occasionally. Once you get accustomed to eggs from your flock, store eggs are yucky and bland. Also, I vote for no rooster. The girls will be fine without a boss. A bad roo can terrorize the chickens, and people, for that matter. If your kids are grown, it's not quite the problem, but little kids need to be considered. Just my 2 cents' worth.

 

[Cherstin]

Thank you for the informative words, everyone! There is really a lot of great information on here.

I had a small, small flock a few years ago, but the fun only lasted about 8 months. I rehomed two roosters due to their crowing: I was afraid they'd become a nuisance to what little neighbors I *do* have out here, and one was beginning to get rather feisty.

Within weeks of being rooster-less, my chickens got picked off one by one by hawks. Now, I can't say for sure that the roosters actually protected the chickens from many run-ins, although I do remember twice when the chickens got spooked by something overhead and both times, the roo rounded them up in the corner of the yard and honestly it looked like he was hugging them in a bunch to keep them safe. Whether or not the hawks just got braver, or whether the roos really did have something to do with it, I just know that without a rooster, I feel like my days of being able to free-range just the ladies are over.

I've never eaten a farm fresh egg before, but I love eggs in general. I really would like to get into the whole "homesteading" idea, and chickens seem like a great place to start.

If I get a roo out of this hatch, I will probably keep him for my own piece of mind, until I feel I can't. Again, I have a lot to learn, and I love sharing new insights and ideas. Many of you have mentioned these "nipple" watering systems, so I will be sure to check those out as well.

And briteday, you hit the nail on the head with the "chore" part. That's exactly the type of information I was looking for as well. We are a family of four, our two boys are ages seven years old, and the little one is just 8 months. I am an early riser 365 days a year ... even when given the opportunity, I can no longer sleep past 6am. (I'll bet a rooster will knock that down by about a half-hour or so.)

I love being outside, but I have no experience with collecting eggs as my last girls never made it that far. I am hoping that five or six bantams will be the beginning of our homesteading adventure.

Thanks again!

 

[Blue]

For a family of 4, 6 or 7 hens will probably provide you with enough eggs. I currently have 34 chickens ranging in age from 8 weeks to several years. Mine are not all in one coop, so that does require more waterers and feeders. As someone else said, the care in the summer is fairly easy and not too time consuming (and I actually find it kind of relaxing. lol!) I will be getting rid of some extra roosters, but this will still be my first winter with so many. Right now, I'll probably be using 3 coops for the winter, and my opinion of the work involved may change...especially if we get a lot of snow or ice this year.

If it gets really bad, I may try to integrate them all into the new big coop with the giant run that my dad and I built for my Brabanters and Cochins, just for the worst part of winter, to cut down on the work. Just not sure all the roosters would get along.

If all your chickens are in 1 coop, it's not much more work to care for a dozen or so than to care for 4 or 5. Keep in mind, though, that with more chickens comes the need to buy more feed, and I can tell you that 34 chickens eat a heck of a lot of feed!

That's not an issue you'll have if you're starting small, though.

As for roosters, I love, love, love roosters, so I'm obviously biased, but I think you should go for it with the rooster. There are fairly simple and permanent ways to get rid of the mean ones, after all, and it's insanely easy to find roosters, as people are always trying to get rid of rooster they don't need or can't keep. If you were closer, I've got a really great barnyard mix rooster (as well as a not so great feisty little RIR bantam

) that I could give you.

 

[SueBaby]

We are a family of 5 on a little smaller lot than you have. In the planning stages Hubby said 3 is good- one for each kid. I said 5 would be better- one for everyone. Hubby's follow up offer was 4- one for each kid and he and I share one. I said OK and we get eggs/chicks. He built the coop bigger than we needed because of what everyone always says. The eggs/chicks were straight run and we weren't sure if one of our favorites was a pullet and we had to have a back up, etc. etc. We ended up with 7. 4 are laying now and the 3 smaller ones will be in another month or so. I think that 4-5 would have been enough for us egg-wise, but I kind of like the idea of having the extras when everyone gets into production. I think eventually we can sell them to friends for a fair price and share our Definitely Better Than Store Bought Eggs.

Chicken work has been minimal due to...

1. the deep litter method (you can look it up here at BYC)
2. nipple waterers (these too)
3. hanging feeders

I do most of the work, my husband and kids pitch in and we LOVE our girls. They free range in the afternoons and we can spend hours watching their antics. Only negative so far is that sometimes the come on our back patio and poop. We had 2 roosters (it was a straight run after all), one of whom I really loved (and he loved me too!). I wanted to keep him as long as possible, but our coop is about 100 ft from our house and I could hear him every morning at 5:15 this summer. In the end I was so worried about him disturbing the neighbors that I couldn't tune it out and he had to go. It was very sad, but we found a good home for him and his brother.

Good luck with your upcoming decisions. You are about to have the most fun and useful pets EVER!

 

[ChickInDelight]

I think its really about how much space you have.

25 chickens is as easy as 2. Just like kids. 1 is allot of work, but the extras are not that much more work.