How many hens?

[rideaway]

Family of three, occassionally four... we don't eat eggs every day but I go through binges where I bake a lot, etc.

How many hens do I need to keep a reasonable supply coming in?

I haven't had chickens in years and am debating getting some from a friend who's raising them up right now...

[bee_man]

My suggestion would be about half a dozen. What I have found in the past is that if you only have 3 and depend on them to provide 3 eggs every day at least 1 and at times 2 will not produce every day. If the 6 hens do produce 6 eggs every day you can always give or trade them to friends.

[LeatherneckPA]

LOL, I would recommend using caution on this one. My intent was to raise up a dozen or so and have fresh eggs for the cost of feed.

Well, I do have a dozen layers and they are currently averaging 9 eggs per day for the last two months. That's an average of over 5 dozen per week!! :o :o :o My neighbors won't even open their doors anymore when they see me coming. It's like Halloween, they turn off the lights and hide.
guess I'll have to start selling them.

For your size family I definitely would NOT go over 4-6 hens, depending on how many eggs you plan to eat weekly. even 4 hens are probably going to give you an average of 18 eggs per week.

[goodwifefarm]

In my experience, they will lay really good (an egg a day for the most part) for the first year, and then they will slack off........so it's a darned if you do.....darned if you don't. With half a dozen hens you'll have lots of eggs the first year, then........not so much! lol

sarah

[Terri]

I have 4 for my family of 4.

The young hens lay the best, so I get a couple of female chicks every couple of years.

The older hens tended to hop the fence and get killed: that is probably going to change as I had to fence the top of the pen due to predators getting worse.

I used to cull the old hens but I do not anymore. Hens will lay somewhat for several years, though the profit is in the first 3 years. Commercial hens have a shorter span of profitability, but, when you can give the hens half-eaten sandwiches your costs are less.

[fancyfowl]

I keep but 1 bantam black Hamburg hen now in with peafowl and she keeps us in eggs. lays daily for about 3 months then gos to 4-5 eggs per week. None in the dead of winter. When I had a lot of birds we also had hogs so no eggs ever went to waste, I also fed them back to the chickens.

[GREEN_ALIEN]

Cheaper to just get the eggs from the friend with the chickens... but no where near the entertainment!

Ted

[rideaway]

Ended up with 5 hens, and they are quite friendly. Part of the reason for getting them is too keep the grandfather clause on the property for allowing livestock. I work with the local planners, who suggested it, so if new neighbors move in, they can't complain. We have pigs and sheep for 6-7 months of the year.