Question
I want get some chickens, my local municipality does classify them as allowable pets. There are no restrictions for 'small' groups of chickens.
Like any pet there are a lot of considerations when choosing what type of pet to get, but chickens seem desirable, as in addition to their other attributes you get fresh eggs to eat. While it may or may not make any health difference I have decided to include a rooster, so I can have fertilized eggs. I won't be breeding any chickens just harvesting their eggs.
I have chosen the Rhode Island Red for it's appropriateness for the home environment and it's attractive color. From the question How much dominance is expected from two male chickens of different breeds? I learned that some consideration should go into the hen/rooster ratio but am not sure what the ratio should be or how to determine it.
Answer
I have found that around a dozen hens and one rooster works well. I know that some people keep roosters with smaller groups of hens, but this can lead to problems as with only a handful of hens, the rooster's attentions will be more "concentrated".
We never separated the rooster from our hens. If they went broody, we'd either let them sit and hatch their clutch or just collect the eggs as normal depending on whether or not we were planning on "retiring" any of our older girls in the near future.
However, if you are only planning on having laying hens to produce eggs for your own personal consumption, keep in mind how many eggs you're going to be getting from ten or twelve hens! Young hens are probably going to produce about an egg a day in the summer with production dropping off in colder weather and as they age. If you're happy with getting 8-12 eggs a day and you don't mind the crowing and you have the space to keep that many chickens, go for it! But if these eggs are just for your family's personal consumption, you'd probably be far better off with just 3-5 hens and no roosters. Much as it might be a nice image and you might have a preference for fertilized eggs, I just don't see it as a practical option unless you're in a rural area and are also able to sell of or otherwise use the excess eggs.
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