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!

The case of the missing hen

Yes, it's true. Our first loss. No blood, no feathers - just completely gone! We really have no idea what happened to her. On friday I let them run around the yard for a while, put them all back in their cage and then left for a couple of hours. When I came home there were only 5 in the coop! I thought she was laying, but when I peeked there was no hen in sight. I thought maybe I had forgotten to put her away with the rest of them before I left, but the next day Jeremy found a huge spot in the chicken wire on the back side that had been pulled up. Looks like some animal may have had poor Sally for lunch. We posted a few signs around our block, anyway, thinking maybe I did leave her out and someone found her wandering. No luck so far. So now we have 5!
6 chickens = 5-6 eggs per day.
So far, 5 chickens has meant 4-5 eggs per day. We are losing about 1 per day, which means we should get about 2.5 dozen per week. We only had all six of them for just over two weeks. I will do the math again sometime soon and come up with the cost analysis per egg.

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.

Victory Gardens in San Diego

As per Jeremy's last blog, here's some info on Victory Gardens in San Diego! I heard the tail end of These Days on NPR this morning, and they were talking about Victory Gardens and other gardening goodness. Here's the transcript.

Mindy Swanson was a guest, and she is the coordinator for Victory Garden's San Diego. There's a ton of helpful links on that site. It's encouraging to see the movement here in San Diego towards food, not lawns.

We personally are trying to eat all the lettuce that's growing in our garden. It's overwhelming us, and our plot is pretty small! Here are some recent photos.

We've recently planted potatoes and zucchini in the back, and our strawberries are getting ripe too! yum.

1944. Patriotism blew through the air like honey bees looking for a hive. America fought the enemy with soul, community and purpose. Forget your shopping and your American flag made in China. This is the time to recycle your tin, conserve sugar and fight totalitarian dictatorships with carpooling. This was an era of honesty with all of its inconsistencies, hatred, love, fear, racism and perseverance. Propaganda was plastered on brick walls in school buildings. Propaganda streamed through the air waves, shone on movie screens and rained down heavy and fierce on souls. People listened. Forty percent of all vegetables in the U.S. were produced through small Victory Gardens housed in backyards, balconies, jails, school yards and abandoned lots. People had ration cards they used, traded and sold for sugar, gas, and other commodities. People volunteered, conserved, fought and worked to help the war effort. Rosie the Riveter raised her fist in the air. We won. Atomic mess, Hitler suicide, tear stained Japanese internment camps, and cheering American soldier marriage. And than came the suburbs....

2009. Patriotism blew through the air like SUV's looking for a gas station. Built in obsolecencse, freedom fries and independence. Urban sprawl, lattes and convenience. Our loyalty and patriotism is measured by one of George Bush's most famous quotes after 911 in his efforts to ease our country and inspire patriotism by telling us to "Go out and shop" Our patriotism got highjacked. Lets highjack it back.

America. I have never been big on pledging allegiance to a country, to waving a flag or singing the national anthem. However I love this country. I love the colors on El Cajon Blvd, the mountain peaks in Alaska, the low hanging mist in Big Sur, the Sudanese Americans hanging by 711 with Mexican coyboys, churches at high schools and my family. I love the opportunity our country has to change. I love the homeless on the bus. I love the fact that I can bitch about the government and not get arrested. I love my friends and chickens.

Inconvenience. Los Angeles in the 1930's had the most advanced and extensive light rail public transit system in the world. San Diego had 100's of miles of light rail system.in the 1930's. It came all the way through City Heights. Than came the GM, Standard Oil and Firestone Tire buy out. Massive piles of train cars were demolished to make way for the latest new invention that ran on gas, rubber and had an internal combustion engine. The bus. Which is a perfect segway to my story. Here is my commute in 2009. It takes me about 2 hours to get from my job in Alpine to my house off the Blvd in San Diego, which is about a 1/2 hour drive. I may have a 55 minute bus ride, a 15 minute trolley ride (not including wait times which can range from 5-25 minutes), and a 1/2 hour walk just to get home one way. Fortunately I can carpool. Sorry Hitler. On Monday's and Wednesday's I get a ride to work. I get a ride back with a Buddhist co-worker to El Cajon Transit Depot and have a 1 to 15 minute wait to catch a 15 minute trolley to SDSU. I than have a 25 minute walk to my house with the orange garage door. Tuesday's I drive my coworker to and from work and on Thursday's he drivesbothe ways. He lives in City Heights which makes it perfect. Except for the fact that we have to leave at 6:30 in the morning and my first class is not until 10:30. Oh well. Friday's I ride my bike 15 minutes to my other job with The Wooden Floor Co. and have a 15 ride home. I never knew how liberating inconvience could be.

Patriotism redefined!! We are shopping for something I cant for the life of me find on a shelf. We are shopping for our kids future. We are shopping for community. We are shopping for a car with 3 hub caps and a bike from 1987. We are shopping for gardens, community supported agriculture, good local beer and eggs in my backyard. We are shopping for creativity. We are shopping for the Jubilee. For restoration. For frienship and life. I pledge allegiance to God and his creative genuis. I pledge allegiance to patriotism redefined.

When you drive alone you drive with Hitler. Join a Car Sharing Club Today!

as our garden grows

awhile back our neighbors came over and helped us plant our garden in the front of our house. i thought i'd give a little update on the progress, and also give "before" and "now" pictures. we're pretty excited about what's growing!

here's some pics from our garden planting party.


We got about 17 rows in our little plot! Goes to show how much you can grown in a small urban garden! This is what we planted:

• 3 rows of carrots
• 2 rows of cauliflower and broccoli
• 1 or 2 rows of turnips, beets, and daikon
• 5 or so rows of red and green leaf lettuce and kale
• 1/2 row of cilantro
• 4 or so rows of snap peas and beans
• some bulbs and flowers for color and general prettiness

Here's what it looks like almost two months later:


pretty exciting. if you can't get enough plant pictures, here are some more.

more number crunching

Tough girl on the bus

We had to get a food refill for the hens today. Last food was provided by BJ on January 19th. That means that it lasted 6 weeks. The cost at the time was approx. $14. and we were totally on empty when he brought it, as we are on totally empty today. Weekly cost of feeding 4 hens? $2.33 in food, $0.54 for grit = $2.89 for all organic whole grain chicken feed. We are switching recipes to this recipe for layers this week and will be doing it this way from here on out, so I'll hash out the cost break down when we run out of this new batch.

More numbers for comparison - last week we drove (in our shared car) approx. 44 carpool miles and 57.6 non-carpool miles. Jeremy also carpooled approx. another 79 miles where he was the passenger. We also logged about 14 miles bicycling to the park/running errands and we had a potluck at the park on Wednesday night that we utilized public transportation for. Riding the bus down El Cajon Blvd. at night is quite an experience, let me tell you! Jeremy also took the bus/trolley for another 35 miles or so. Yay for two hour busrides to cover 22 miles!

Waiting for the #1

making the best of waiting for the bus