If you ’re thinking about purchasing Gallus gallus , a big question on your judgement is probably ‘ how many chickens should I get?’It ’s a practiced question and one unquestionably worth explore soundly . These birds are live animals that must be cautiously cared for as you would any other pet , and purchasing too many chickens can be as big of a trouble as purchasing too few . So get ’s talk about how many chickens you should grease one’s palms for ball and core , what their blank requirements are , and how many is probably too many .
One importantgolden ruleto bear in brain as you get quick to get doll : theminimum numberof chickens you should have is 3 . Hens and roosters alike are societal brute who bank on one another hard in their slew mount . I never advise keeping 2 or just 1 chicken at a time .
How many chickens do you need for eggs?
find how many chickens your mob postulate for eggs is middling easy . My personal normal of quarter round has always been to assess how many eggs I purchase per week , supply 30 % to that number , and make a determination about the number of chickens I should get based on that routine . So if your household goes through 2 dozen orchis per hebdomad , you ’ll need to have enough hens to lie at least that many for you plus an spare 30 % , which is about 7 ballock . So you ’ll need 31 eggs per hebdomad to flow your kinsfolk .
This means that you ’ll require to be collecting about 5 bracing eggs every solar day of the hebdomad . A skillful bollock - lay breed , like aNovogen , Welsummer , orWyandotte , will likely bring home the bacon you with an egg about every 24 - 28 time of day , so just about every day . So to sustainably bung a family that eats 2 dozen eggs per week , you will probably want to keep 5 wimp . Of course , you could always keep a few extra and give off or sell extra dozens of eggs to your neighbour !
How many chickens do you need for meat?
calculate how many chickens your family needs for meat is also somewhat easy . To utilise my house as an example , we eat about 2 chickens per week . For year , I have raised my owncornish crossbreed chickensfor nitty-gritty , which take about 7 weeks to grow to the size ask for processing . The way I care to do it is to raise about 30 at a prison term , sue them , freeze or can them , and then we have enough poulet for about 15 weeks . I take a few weeks off from raising them and then order a new round of 30 chicks about 7 weeks before we run out .
Don’t crowd your property
When you protrude thinking about how many wimp to buy , it can be very easy to underestimate just how much work they ’ll put into scratching up your yard and property . If you have too many chicken in too small of a space , they will veil any supergrass or plant lifespan growing , make a immense , smelly mess , and during wetting agent meter of twelvemonth , their running will turn into a muddy , mucky incubus . Not to mention that very messy , miry , manure - fill yards spread diseases that can harm your chickens . When it come to the amount of space your chickens need , these are the rules of thumb :
Every poulet should have 12 inches ofroosting spacein your wimp chicken coop . That means if you have 6 chickens , you need 6 foot of rest ginmill for them to sleep on each dark . If you have 12 chickens , give them 12 feet to roost . Chickens do huddle up together in the winter , but when it ’s warmer , they need a piffling bit more space to spread out and stay put cool .
Inside of yourchicken coop , your dame need space to tramp around and nest boxes in which to comfortably nest and lay bollock . Every bird needs about 3 - 5 square feet of space inside of the chicken hencoop . If you destine to have 10 chickens , your coop should be at least 30 square foot . The more space you provide them , the sound and felicitous they will be . And remember : well-chosen chickens produce the proficient heart and egg .
When it number to yourchicken run , more is right . I have always done my best to allow my hens to have a full run at the yard when I ’ve lived somewhere safe enough for them to free - mountain chain . innocent ranging your birds will give them the chance to track down hemipteran and pests and scrounge healthy food , deoxidize your feed price . If you do n’t want to do that and prefer to enclose them , that ’s utterly fine . The principle of quarter round here is to provide them each with 10 solid foot of space in the running . If you intend to keep 10 Gallus gallus , you ’ll need to section off 100 satisfying feet of space for their volaille rill .
