Half dozen is plenty really. In recipe's it's supposed to be 3 quail eggs to replace 1 chicken egg, it's really about 2.5 just rounded up. With a family of four and a dozen birds we have egg breakfasts 2 or 3 times a week in the summer, down to every other week in the winter. We'll probably expand the flock a little this summer, bigger cage plans once I can figure out how to keep them as safe as they are in the shed now. Just found out rodents can spread bird flu too, so building requirements just got tougher.