Digging nearing end, 1st Quarter Chicken financials.

I moved some dirt today!  If I hit it hard tomorrow I may be able to finish digging in one day.  Not sure if I can accomplish this heavy task, but am going to give it a try.  The only thing left to dig is the front corner and I have to make three feet wide paths that go under the barn twenty feet. Not going to be easy.  On the other hand I sharpened my shovel on Tuesday and it made digging today amazingly easier.  I wonder how many people actually know they need to sharpen their shovel?  I could slide it into the dirt 100% further than before I sharpened it.  I just use a hand file and sharpen it up.  I get it almost rough knife sharp.  The kind of sharp where you do not want to hit your foot or hand because you are going to lose a small appendage easily.

Zeke and I went out tonight and rounded up the sheep.  He is doing great.  He no longer attacks them, he hangs back and gets them to move without jumping on them and hanging off their sides.  We are still working on a few commands "right", "left" and "circle around".  Annmarie tells me there is some fancy name for getting them to circle around, I cannot remember it so I am not going to teach the dog to follow it. I am hoping that once Zeke knows left and right we can segue into the circle around command.  It is so much easier to get the sheep now.

I decided to go away from the monthly chicken report.  I just kept putting it off and the spread sheet keeps a running total that changes if I do two months at the same time.  We will now have a Quarterly chicken report that is cumulative to the year.   The 1st Quarter 2012 (Jan-Mar) report as follows.  Total net income to date is $18.79 loss (not bad considering I purchased a new chicken door for $110 in March).  The average monthly net income is $6.26 loss.  Year to date Laying hens per day 27.7.  Year to date Eggs collected per day 10.6.  Year to date layer productivity is at 38% (not great, hoping it gets better but I caught Zeke today playing with eggs he found in the barn.  He was taking the whole eggs and stashing them and burying them with the shells intact.  Gotta collect eggs before he finds them in the afternoon.).  Year to date pounds of feed consumed per egg 0.41.  Year to date feed cost per egg 0.10 ($1.20/dozen, pretty good at this end, too bad feed is not the only cost).  I think I can be in the black this year, if the new automatic chicken door holds out and the predators don't kill off all my hens.