Author: Anna & Mark

Many
of you may be starting chickens for the first time this year, in which
case the question on your mind is probably “How many chickens should I
get?”  If you’re raising broilers for meat, the answer is pretty
obvious — you should raise about as many broilers as you plan to eat
that year.  But what if you’re starting a laying flock?

The chart above is
excerpted from Success
With Baby Chicks,
by Robert Plamondon (which is a great book to get you started with
chick-raising.)  To find your recommended laying flock size, skim
down the first column until you find the number of eggs your family
eats per week, then follow that row to the right until you reach the
column with the type of hen you plan to buy.  Modern hybrids
include Golden Comets, Production Reds, and all of
the other varieties that won’t breed true but will provide you with the
most eggs for your feed costs.  Old style commercial hens are the
varieties that used to be raised commercially before hybrids came on
the scene — mostly Rhode Island Reds, White Longhorns, and Barred
Rocks.



Many people new to
chicken-keeping pick the prettiest hens out of the hatchery catalog, or
opt for “easter-eggers” that lay green and blue eggs.  But as you
can see from Plamondon’s chart, you’d need twice as many Cochins as Golden Comets to lay the
same number of eggs.  If you’re pinching pennies, perhaps it’s
worth it to focus on productivity and stick to hybrids.



One more word of wisdom
before you decide on your flock size — your family might double or
triple its egg consumption once fresh eggs are available.  We
barely ate eggs except in baked goods before getting our flock, but now
we could easily eat two dozen eggs a week between us.  Real eggs
sure are tasty!

March has come in like a
lion, and our chickens are wet and muddy.  I’ve been wanting to
focus on making
our cochin go broody and set on some chicks, but she’s had a low-level
case of diarrhea that she can’t seem to shake.  I’ve dosed her
with yogurt, garlic, and earthworms, all to no avail.  I know that
deep
bedding is supposed to be healthy for chickens, but I also know that it
takes several months for the good bacteria to colonize bedding, so it’s
possible that my experimental bedding is responsible for her ill
health.  Just as likely, though, is the current forest pasture’s
position in the shadiest spot in the yard.

Meanwhile, Mark has been
hard at work putting together a used
pallet chicken coop
in the sunniest area so that we can move our flock there soon. 
Green grass is pushing up through last year’s dead foliage in the new
pasture area, and I suspect that fresh greenery will be the health cure
our cochin has been looking for.  I’m chomping at the bit to get
our flock moved into the sun and our cochin sitting on some eggs, but I
have to remind myself that the farm has its own timeline.  Maybe
by the end of the week….