If you assume that the feathers account for 5% of a chicken's weight, it would take 20 tons of chickens to make a ton of feathers. At 5 pounds per chicken, that would be about 8,000 chickens.
Of course, it depends what kind of chicken. They vary in weight from one pound for some bantams (you'd need 40,000) to 10 pounds for a Jersey Giant (you'd need 4,000). And 5% may be too high, in which case you'd need more - or too low, in which case you'd need fewer.
That's if you kill and pluck them. If you let them live and collect all their feathers as they molt, then how many you'd need depends on how long you're willing to wait. If you were willing to wait seven years, you might need only a fifth as many chickens. How to collect all those feathers is left as an exercise for the student.
You should be more specific ... And I'm assuming that you would only be plucking the feathers after the chickens are dead. You can't pluck a live chicken cuz they need the feathers for warmth.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com Anyway. My dad has a farm so I've plucked a fair amount of birds.
One Orpington chicken (the standard factory breed) will provide less than a regular sized plastic grocery bag of feathers. For a "ton of feathers", I think more than several dozen chickens will be necessary.
But keep in mind that after the whole killing process, most of the feathers will be too soiled to use for whatever project you are intending them for. For really nice feathers, have really healthy birds. And keep the killing process as sanitary as possible, washing your hands several times throughout.
Also, remember to cut off the tip of the feather that was attached to the skin.
Good luck! Plucking can be tricky.
A ton of chickens.
