by the numbers

With some egg-laying time under our belt, the two new chickens and the loss of our other girl, I thought it might be a nice time to crunch some numbers:

Previous total, on April 21st = $357

Food bought since = $0.

Eggs produced since then = 148

Previous eggs = 29

Total per egg = $2.02

Total per dozen = $24.24

This is averaging 5 eggs per day when we had all 6 hens and dropping it down to 4 per day once we lost the one. This has consistently been our average. No, I am not keeping a tally!

eggs and hens

First, a picture of our approximately $357 egg, laid on Sunday, April 5th 2009.


Damn, chickens are LOUD when they get all proud about the eggs they've been laying! I had no idea. Everyone always seemed a little surprised at how quite and cute ours sounded. They hadn't started laying EGGS yet, and announcing it proudly and loudly the world. Thank goodness it's not as loud or early as a rooster's crow. It makes me giggle when I start to hear the classic "CLUCK-cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck-CLUCK" of the hen call and I can't wait to run out and raid the nest. It now happens 3 or 4 times a day, and each time there is a new egg sitting amongst the golf balls and plastic chicken eggs that I hijacked from my children to fill the nest. Will it ever get old? Will I ever not get excited when I hear that call and just let the freshly laid egg stay nestled in that warm little nest for a while? Maybe, but for someone who's new to this hen business it may take some time before the excitement wears off.

We decided to get two more hens, a couple of Ameraucanas. They are smaller and a little scraggly, poot little girls! My big brootish ladies keep picking on them, too, as they are trying to figure out their pecking order. Every day that goes on seems a little bit smoother, though. I sure hope all of this picking is over with soon! I am tired of being the intervening "rooster" trying to mediate the fighting. The new girls lay blue-green eggs. Our current ladies all lay brown. We got 5 in one day the other day, and I think that will be the norm once everyone adjusts and settles in. Yesterday we only got two and I think it will take a while for the stress of the newbies to wear off and for everyone to get in their natural groove again. 5 a day! That's, um, just about 3 dozen a week! We decided to sell the extra 1 - 1.5 dozen we will be getting so that we can supplement the cost of the organic feed and make the whole venture more economical. Gimme a holler if you wanna buy some eggs, yo!

So far (roughly):

Coop = $200.

chicken tractor = $50.

Chicks = $12.

New layers = $30.

Food = $65. (the price has jumped to about $17 per 5 weeks. Only organic whole grains)

Total = $357.

# of eggs thus far = 29

Cost = APPROX $12.31 per egg.

The nitty gritty

just wanted to quickly post some #'s. Had to buy chicken grit on Sunday at $2.70. Last had to buy it on Martin Luther King day, Jan. 19th. That means one box lasted pretty much exactly 5 weeks. Breakdown - $0.54 per week. Pretty sure I can get it cheaper somewhere else, or just use beach sand since there's plenty of that around here. Or maybe they don't even need it since they are out free ranging a good part of the day... We mostly have clay here, though - not too much gritty stuff. I need to look into that.

Chicken Food for thought

C. feeding some turnip greens to the chickens

Just thought I'd mention this now, so I don't forget and so we can keep track - BJ bought food for the chickies yesterday at Peoples. We have been following the recipe here on Greener Pastures Farms website. All of the grain we buy at Peoples Co-op is organic and purchased from the bulk bins. I know it would probably be way cheaper to buy the stuff at the feed store, but I wouldn't feed that stuff to my kids, ya know? Aside from the whole grains they get from the co-op, they are gobbling up our leftover dinner scraps (that Jeremy is not taking in his lunch the next day) and I also let them out to free range at least for a little while every day. It's usually for a couple of hours, though sometimes for only a half an hour if we have a busy day. I am really surprised at the amount of greens these little gals consume! It kind of makes me realize how unnatural the eggs from the store must be if they are from chicks that are forced to stay in cages and eat feed for their whole lives. Opens up your eyes a little. Anyhoooo - the feed that BJ bought cost a grand total of $14 and some change. I gave them the first scoop from this batch today and wanted to make a note so we could see how long it lasts and figure out our cost.