I raised the price of a dozen eggs to $4/dozen in May. It is helping my bottom line dramatically. Now these numbers could be skewed because spring is always the most productive for the chickens. They like the weather and food opportunities.
On average I had 18 laying hens giving me 6.3 eggs/day, for a productivity rate of 37% (In June my six babies started laying). I am feeding on average 120# chicken feed/month (decrease of 13 lbs/month) for a grand total of 600# this year already. My pounds of feed consumed per egg went from 0.7 lbs/egg in first quarter to 0.37 lbs/egg this quarter. My feed use for last three months dropped 50% due to the weather and availability of natural food. This is where free ranging the chickens really pays off. My monthly feed bill is $29.83/month (a drop of $6/month). On average just feed costs are $2.29/dozen eggs (a drop of $1/doz). I have collected 1611 eggs to date. Total feed costs are $149 ($41 increase, pretty good!), supply expenses are none this quarter. My total expense for the production of eggs is $2.65/doz (a decrease of $1.26/doz). I am now charging $4/doz. I am ahead $148 for the year. Pretty amazing really. I need to keep this up so the chickens make money or break even for 2014. I have been looking at the feed cost thing but the feed store in Hermiston was the cheapest feed around and they went out of business. I am thinking about buying in bulk. When I see a sell on feed that can save me 10-20% I buy at least 6 months worth of feed at that time. I can store it in the back of the chicken coop in the feed/egg area. It's really my only option at this time. Walmart now sells chicken feed, but they only carry a 40# bag and when you figure out the difference from a 50# bag they are not any cheaper. They just lightened the bag to lower the sticker price. The price of eggs in the store has started to slowly rise.
No comments:
Post a Comment