Challah dough wetness/braiding questions

Hey y'all

I made challah bread for the first time a few days ago and was having trouble figuring out how wet my dough should be. Before the first rise, I noticed that people's dough looked pretty smooth, but in order for mine to look the same, I had to add flour to the point where the dough wasn't sticking to itself at some points. After I let it rise, it had gotten much wetter again. Then when I was rolling the dough into snakes, it was sticking to my counter and very difficult to roll out, so I added a minimal dusting of flour to them, but then I began to see tiny fissures forming in the dough, which made me think it was too dry. I switched between adding more flour and wetting my hands and ultimately gave up and braided them together the best that I could. After the second rising, the separations of the braids had mostly disappeared since everything had puffed up and was sticking together. The bread eventually came out well, although the braids were another story. Any tips?

Recipe used:

• 2 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup honey
• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil

• 3 eggs  
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 8 cups unbleached all-purpose flour