The answer isn't a number of chickens. The answer is more complex...

- the selected breed's qualities (meat bird, layer, dual purpose)
- the breed stock quality
- the breed's behavior (good forager? Thrifty eater? Do the hens go broody?)
- forage quality
- supplemental feed quality and quantity

A good quality hen will give about six eggs a week when she is getting 14 hours of light per day . She'll slow done in winter and during molting.

Raising chickens for meat really isn't a profitable venture if cost is your only motivation. For that matter neither are eggs.

Our chickens are 100% organic so they were expensive over winter when the forage is thin. It cost us about $3.60 per dozen eggs in feed. However, I'd you don't care about organic the price drops of precipitously. Also, chickens are omnivores and will eat kitchen and garden scraps.

We have 8 laying hens and 16 pullets (female chickens less than a year old and/or not yet laying). The eight birds supply us with an average of between 6 and 7 eggs per day. When all 24 birds start laying we will be looking to sell eggs to family and friends who value free range, humanely treated, 100% organic eggs.