If you want to make sure you have a steady supply of eggs so you never have to buy eggs from the store again, how many chickens should you get?
Hey, this is Ashley at Headrick Homestead, and this is part one of my mini series, The Four Decisions You Need to Make Before Getting Chickens. Now I created a PDF guide to go along with these videos, so be sure to download it so you can follow along and fill it in.
How Many Eggs Will you Need Per Day?
When you’re deciding how many chickens you’re going to need, the first step is to determine how many eggs you need per day.
Does your family eat a lot of eggs? Is it a staple or do you just eat them on the weekends? Do you do a lot of baking?
Once you figure out how many eggs you need, then you can determine the number of hens.
Now, keep in mind, chickens are living, breathing creatures, not mechanized little egg factories, so your chickens production will be greatly affected by temperature and daylight and age and breed.
That said, for planning purposes, I like to assume that a chicken will lay about two out of every three days in the summer and one out of every three days in the winter.
For example, my family needs about six eggs per day. I currently have 19 laying hens. During the summer months, those hens are giving me between 12 and 18 eggs per day, which is way more than we need.
But during the winter months, I’m only getting around 6 eggs day, which is just enough to keep us from buying eggs from the store.
Personally, I’d rather have eggs coming out of my ears during the summer months so that we still have enough eggs in the winter.
Yes, that means I have an overabundance for most of the year, but I have a lot of friends and family who are very eager to purchase my excess.
And I bet you would have a ton of people in your life too, who would clamor to buy your extra eggs if you have an overabundance.
First Time Raising Chickens?
If this is your first time raising chickens, I highly recommend getting all females. This is because roosters tend to be loud and unpredictable and mean and your hens do not need a rooster to lay eggs. They will be just fine without them.
If you do get straight run or unsexed chicks, approximately half of them will be roosters. That means you’ll have to get twice as many chickens to end up with the amount of laying hens that you want.
And you’ll have to figure out what to do with all of those boys. It’s just not an ideal situation.
Okay, now it’s your turn. In your guide, there is a chart to help you determine how many chickens you should get based off of the number of eggs you want per day.
Take a look at it. Jot down how many chickens you want, and then I’ll see you in the next video where we’ll talk about my favorite chicken breeds for beginners.
