Last spring, I bought an even dozen chicks from the feed store. Most were from pullet runs, with a few from straight runs. I ended up with two roosters and gave one away. I was prepared to lose a couple chicks to disease or predators, but ended up with 10 laying hens and 1 rooster. My household consists of myself and husband, but we do not eat eggs every day. Our dog gets raw eggs often now.
In the summer, the hens produce about 6-8 eggs per day (this may increase this summer as they just started laying last July) but in the winter I'm only getting 2-3. I like being able to give eggs away and do so often. Thus, even though our production far outweighs our personal consumption, I do not usually have a large backlog of eggs in the frig. I have a mixed flock, some hens lay very regularly and others are more sporadic. I don't really keep tabs on who is laying and who is not. My buff orpingtons are my best layers, and one has shown definite broodiness tendencies.
There is probably a magic formula of hens:people ratio, but I don't know what that is. I've had good luck poking around on the website backyardchickens.com for specific questions, but I find the site a bit overwhelming for general use (some of their thread responses number into the thousands - who has time to slog through all that?). Another consideration is the capacity of your coop. Mine is designed for a maximum of 15.
I could probably get by with about a half dozen hens for our personal use. But, I am not into this venture as any sort of money-maker or even to be cost-effective. I like having a little flock, farm fresh eggs really can't be beat, and the chickens are entertaining little creatures.
