It?s beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

[Vulture]

Why don't you just get six chicks? I would think that would be better as they stand in a group to keep warm. Chicks here only cost about $2 each and eggs are now about $2.40 doz. (free range are about $4 per doz) Chicken feed is expensive - we wouldn't break even if we didn't supplement with our own grain and garden bugs in in the summer. We had a bad slug problem and now we don't! That was worth having chickens for me alone. 

Chicken feed ain't chicken feed no more! 

 

[Fyodor]

"Apparently keeping half of them alive is pretty good for your first go" - I plan to have 3 to start with... . Please ask your son how many eggs I should anticipate per week from one and a half chickens...
Thanks for the picture of the coop Diane - our plans are for something a tad less palatial, but the colour IS pretty. There is a plastic coop on sale, called an egloo since it loks vaguely like a garishly coloured igloo and costs about half a million pounds (well it might as well do) but we will go for the homemade version, costing about 2/6.
Roger, you are mean - no eggs for you next spring, and Fyodor - none for you either.

In case you didn't know, eggs are bad for you this week and ever other odd-coloured week from now until the end of time - so, do I look bothered?
Go on, one won't kill you on the occasional even-coloured week.