Three would give you probably a dozen eggs a week. They need a minimum of 10 square feet of run space each, but I like more space per bird than that.
The birds are the least expensive part. About $3-5 a pop as chicks here and $15-20 as young adults. If you built a coop and run for pretty cheap, I could see them paying off. The key is to keep with it, so your first flock would break even and after that they're paid off. With three birds it wouldn't be so much an income supplement, but a cost elimination.
If you're looking for something that might be less regulated and easier to conceal and do on a larger scale, look into quail. Only require about a square foot per bird, they're quieter and make more eggs, though the eggs are smaller. They can be harvested for meat as soon as five weeks and start producing eggs about seven weeks. A lot of places don't consider them poultry, so they don't fall under that regulation. I've heard they can be classified as wild animals, but some laws need broken some times.
We have nine right now. Ours are illegal.
Three would give you probably a dozen eggs a week. They need a minimum of 10 square feet of run space each, but I like more space per bird than that.
The birds are the least expensive part. About $3-5 a pop as chicks here and $15-20 as young adults. If you built a coop and run for pretty cheap, I could see them paying off. The key is to keep with it, so your first flock would break even and after that they're paid off. With three birds it wouldn't be so much an income supplement, but a cost elimination.
If you're looking for something that might be less regulated and easier to conceal and do on a larger scale, look into quail. Only require about a square foot per bird, they're quieter and make more eggs, though the eggs are smaller. They can be harvested for meat as soon as five weeks and start producing eggs about seven weeks. A lot of places don't consider them poultry, so they don't fall under that regulation. I've heard they can be classified as wild animals, but some laws need broken some times.