Jan Drake

Thank you for all the advice on keeping chickens.  One breed of chicken that I'm interested in are Red Star Chickens.  Supposedly they have one of the largest eggs.  But what I haven't found regarding them, to get larger eggs, does that require more feed?  I'm sure it does.  So the question is, is it cost effective to go big or go bigger?

https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/red_star.html#:~:text=The%20Red%20Star%20(also%20called,it%27s%20called%20the%20Red%20Star.

My wife and I go through about 5 eggs per day, sometimes less.  Being on a KETO diet, eggs are a major part of the menu.  

One of my wife's concern is, what happens when one of the hens dies or becomes sick?  I said we would have fried chicken that evening.  She doesn't think she could eat one of our home raised chickens.  When I was raising my children, I had rabbits.  First meal, and the kids wondered why all the chickens had four legs.  I'm not sure I can pull that off on my wife, and tell her that it's not the chicken we had but a two legged rabbit. lol  

I look forward to all the advice and tips from everyone.  

I've been working on the wife to let me have chickens.  She is concerned that they will either fly away or be taken by a raptor.  

My backyard is surrounded by a cedar fence six feet high all around it.  I'm going to be putting a chicken coop in on the backside of a out building, it will be blocked from the wind on two sides from the fence and the building.  I live in a residential area in Central Indiana, zone 6.  The wife and I don't see many raptors flying around.  Occasionally a hawk.  We don't have any possums, skunks, weasels, bobcats or anything bigger.  We do have mice and sometimes a rat and a couple of fat squirrels.  But I've been keeping them at bay for the most part.

We don't have chickens, yet, but I'm doing all the research, so i can with confidence  tell my wife how and what I'm going to do.  

I've watched people on youtube and a few friends, with chickens, have then inside a 4 foot fence and they seem to stay within that area.  I don't want to chase down any hens that fly the coop, into a neighbors yard.  So my biggest question is, WILL they fly outside of the backyard?  I'm 70 years old, and I can't run anymore.  Sometimes I can barely walk.  In my past I've raised rabbits and pigs.  So I've been around farm animals a lot.  (Also was a field slaughter-man for a small butcher many years ago, so nothing will make me gag.)

I live in the city, and I know I can have up to 5 chickens and no roosters.  My backyard is like I said, surrounded by a six foot high fence.  My backyard isn't very big,  Maybe altogether, 80x50 feet (with a garage and the out building in that area).  I'm thinking about making the chicken house about either 4' x 4' or 2' x 8'. What would be a good recommendation for 5 hens?    I've looked at many designs for coops and have a pretty good idea how to build one.  (I do have the skills, one is a saw and the other is a drill.  lol )  
I do a lot of gardening, and grow a lot of stuff from raised beds.

So, I think I've said enough.  If you have any questions, please ask.  Oh and this is my first forum posting here, woohoo.