How many chickens do I need?

How this calculation works

Start from consumption, not from the coop. A typical US household eats about five eggs per person per week once you count breakfasts, baking and the occasional quiche. Multiply that out, then divide by what one hen of your chosen breed actually lays in a week — not the hatchery's best-case number.

A White Leghorn at 280 eggs a year averages 5.4 eggs per week. A Buff Orpington at 190 averages 3.7. That difference means a family of four needs four Leghorns or six Orpingtons for the same breakfast. The calculator rounds up, because half a hen is not a thing.

The space numbers, and why they matter

Overcrowding is the single most common beginner mistake, and it doesn't announce itself as a space problem — it shows up as feather picking, bullying, and hens that stop laying. The standards baked into the calculator are:

• 4 ft² of coop floor per standard hen. Bantams can go to 2 ft²; large breeds like Jersey Giants want 5–6.
• 10 ft² of run per hen. If your birds free-range most days you can shade this down, but the run is what they get on rainy weeks — size it for the bad days.
• One nesting box per four hens. Adding more rarely helps; they will all queue for the same favourite box anyway.
• 10 inches of roost bar per hen, more in cold climates where they huddle.

What the feed line really costs

A laying hen eats roughly a quarter pound of feed a day, so a 50 lb bag runs a flock of five for about six weeks. That's the baseline the calculator uses. What it doesn't include: bedding, grit, oyster shell, and the winter months when they eat more and lay less. Budget 20–30% above the feed line for the real cost of keeping a flock.

Breed reference

Before you order chicks

Check your municipal code. Flock caps of four to six birds are common, roosters are banned in most suburbs, and some places have setback rules that dictate where the coop can sit relative to a property line. It is much cheaper to learn this before the chicks arrive.