Chicken financials first quarter of 2015.

 

For feed safety!

On average I had 22.3 laying hens giving me 8.3 eggs/day, for a productivity rate of 36% (this is great for Winter, and only 1% less than last year at the same time).  I am feeding on average 167# chicken feed/month for a grand total of 500# this year already (100# more than last year, with 6 more chickens than last year).  Bimart just put their chicken feed on sale for one week.  It is only $11.99/50# of layer pellets and $9.99/50# of scratch.  The only real problem is they put a limit of only six bags of each type!  So now I have to get Sarah to buy six of each type, Annmarie another 12 and me 12 more for a total of 1800#.  This won't get me through the entire year but it saves me $3 on scratch and $5 on pellets for a savings of $144/feed.  That is a lot of savings.  The only problem with this is I have to store it all in the back of the coop.  So more cats is essential and I found these cute little poison pellet containers that dogs, kids and cats cannot get to the bait only mice.  I already put some out in the coop and will get more.  Plus, I will be cleaning the coop out very soon, probably while on vacation. 

  My monthly feed bill is $37.30/month (only a 1.50 increase over last year).  My feed costs are $1.93/doz with my total cost of production $1.93/doz (I have not purchased anything else at this point.  This will change as I clean out the coop and pay for new wood pellets and I will be getting babies at the end of the week).  I have collected 713 eggs to date (almost 150 more than last year).  Total feed costs are $112, supply expenses are none.  I am keeping with the new charge of $4/doz I started last year.  Eggs just keep getting more expensive in the grocery store.  I currently have a profit of $84 for the year.  My goal is to just make more than last year.  The eggs yolks are starting to turn a nice dark orange.  The chickens are spending more time outside free ranging in the pastures. 

I have one Turken chicken that is very broody.  She has claimed the old green cooler as her nest box and has been very diligent in staying in there.  Two days ago I gave her six eggs, five green ones and a white one.  I forgot to mark them with a pencil.  So there is no telling how many eggs she has in there now.  I will go out tomorrow and mark them and take away any extra eggs she may have.  The eggs should hatch in 21-24 days.  I can never remember the exact incubation period.  If so, then we will have lots of babies.