Chicken Charts

[KrazyChromatics]

just a curiosity who else keeps charts on their flocks?

For my 4 flocks I have different charts keeping track of different things

For the duel purpose flock, I chart pretty much what breeds they are comprised of, their assigned number, what generation they are, and lastly for the ones that we process what their final weight was and the age, that way we can see what breeds are getting larger faster, and we have a better idea of who to cull from the breeding stock

for my bantams im a bit less picky but its basically the same thing, i breed them to feed my raw fed dog, and they also sell pretty well live, i do bannies because of their fast maturation rate, i like to know the critters full potential before I cull them, and when i process them their final weight is roughly 1 lb minus feathers, head, intestine *i leave everything else inside* the rough part is i love em and some time i have to make hard decisions... i do try to sell em first, but when i need to process 135 a year just for the dog alone, and that kinda is WHY im breeding them lol oh well, it works so far

I'm just starting out with cochins, its a small flock of 3 with my hen only 3 or so months, and i kept back 2 roosters for her when i got 12 in for the dog from someone they had good personalities color and conformation, but they will be used for broodies i hope to get something like 12 working brooders eventually, then maybe i wont need the incubator anymore... im going to cross them to my jap bannie as she is super broody and just hatched out 3 but i lost one due to a rabbit.. yeah idk either, found the poor lil guy with a mangled leg, missing a foot and an injury in the side likely from being bitten, mom is keeping the other 2 close now and i removed the neighbor rabbit who kept breaking into her run.... but they are a bit more cut and dry, ill breed em late in the year and keep them inside till spring so ill be able to tell "sooner" so next year who i can use, but the jap has a daughter i sold and she currently is mothering 7 babies she hatched so it seems a strong instinct for them...

my last group is my colored layers and i monitor everything i can about them, from what egg they hatched out of to what they lay themselves, i monitor their offspring and what color eggs they have started laying, how many were hens/roosters, and if they are broody, also with their date of hatch, number, lineage, etc...

but idk i have a notebook that i record for the hatches, they all get banded as soon as they hatch, so hatch day is hectic for me as sometimes ill leave and none have pipped come back an hr later and heres 5 new chicks lol, so i need to keep a close eye on em so i dont get confused and record the wrong info and throw myself off. I start off with colored rubber bands, then they get their hatch number when they are big enough, about a weeks or 2, then they get their final number which will have their generation, doh, and personal number, so like right now their numbers look like F24.28.13-7 the duel purpose flock gets something similar but with a C in front of the F for "Coop" we call those guys coop chickens, and mine barn chickens lol... but eventually they all end up on the computer with their assigned numbers and current status weather thats layer/breeder/brooder/cull/sell etc....

I find the charting to be much of the fun... idk i guess im an odd ball like that.... anyone else out there share in my oddity or am i a new breed? lol

 

[Mrs. K]

how do you know who lays what egg?

 

[CherishHolland]

I keep charts on my hatches. Egg weight before setting and so on I keep detailed track of temps humidity and what I have done to fix a problem shall one arise.

 

[Mrs. K]

but how do you know which hen laid which egg?

 

[KrazyChromatics]

how do you know who lays what egg?

well with the bantams i only have 2 that are laying, well one now that my older gal has chicks so i wont see any eggs from her for a while, but each has chicks that come out looking a specific way, not to say i dont get confused lol, but there is a difference in color and shape, be it slight

With the coop chickens... i haven't the foggiest idea as to who lays what, its a mishmash of difference coming out of them lol, but i plan to set up trap boxes and isolate specific birds so I know
I wait until they are fully feathered to make a guess as to what combination they are, we have NH, HN/RIR, PR hens and one each buff, PR, Old English bantam for roosters, but before we had 2 NH/RIR, 1 NH/Buff and a second PR rooster that was driving me crazy for deciphering breeds so we culled them out also becasue having that many roosters was crazy and our hens look like crap now... poor girls were getting gang banged :x

for my "barn birds" i have 5 that are laying right now, and all their eggs are different, one lays a mossy green egg, one lays a giant blue egg, my andalusion lays a round pink egg, another girl lays a chalky med size blue egg thats rounder, and the other blue egg is pretty normal for an egg lol but i sit with them a lot and just hang out, i know for sure who lays this and that just by waiting to see lol, and they tend to lay in their own area, if i get confused i separate into a secluded run and wait to see what they lay... I hand breed my birds so i know, when i get my coop and they are allowed to free range they will get their rooster back for protection and for incubator eggs ill isolate the hens i want offspring from if i plan to breed them to a different rooster and wait for them to start presumably laying duds and then introduce them to the new rooster once a day for a week then collect those eggs and hatch them out... but with how funny hens are with holding sperm i have had a couple that leave me scratching me head, like figure this one out, i got a white chick hatch from the group of red and partridge birds, and a blue one also recently, both hatched from normal eggs and are actually bantams...

I keep charts on my hatches. Egg weight before setting and so on I keep detailed track of temps humidity and what I have done to fix a problem shall one arise.

hmm... i thought about weighing eggs a bit ago but *shrug* with so many things that im keeping track of it was just one more thing lol... I don't measure humidity or temp, i am real scientific lol, i smell the air in the 'bator, if its thick and hot i open the vents and even take the top completely off for a sec to let the moisture out, if it smells dry ill add some water if the tray is empty *more of a winter problem with the wood stove* when i lock down i shut all vents fill the tray, and i have had great hatches, i may just be getting lucky lol idk i found the more i fussed with it the crappier my success is, i just candle in the beginning to remove any clears and then before i lock down i remove any quitters, out of 42 on average i have 30/35 hatch and most of them on day 19, and i had stuck a thermometer in there as i was concerned over the last couple hatches because they were so early, but 99.5 steady and true lol, idk

 

[StephieSky]

I started a binder or print outs and have a OneNote notebook ongoing.
I only have two chickens in my flock lol But I was getting totally lost due to lack of record keeping. I was using a calendar after the first few weeks to track medications.

Now I'm doing a tracker in OneNote. I'm tracking their feed/diet, water, weight and behaviours like egg laying or not. Health issues and steps taken, medications (product, dosage & shedule)
And making notes of little things I notice. Like one hen favoring a leg known to be bad which turned into a big fat limp two days later. It helps so much to have a reference point!

Once I realized I was getting lost in the details I looked everywhere for a premade tracking document and came up empty. So I made one. I'm still refining the blank Notebook. So maybe I'm OCD? lol Yes I do have moderate ocd but it could be worse

 

[KrazyChromatics]

hmm.. doing the print out deff sounds like a good idea too... would make record keeping just a bit easier if i simply have to fill in the blank lol