Anyone else keep track of hens and eggs?

[JohnHenry]

I also have a speadsheet

to track eggs and total of feed, chickens, dewormer, and misc supplies ($132). I have been raising the 5 girls

for 6 weeks and have 163 eggs @ $0.81/egg but I have months of scratch, oyster shells and Flubenvet so the cost keeps coming down. My wife could hardly care less though

 

[greenSearcher]

Quote:
I have 43 or which 25 are laying. I also have BA, NN, Delawares, 1 Marans, EEs, SS and 1 Production red.

Right now egg size tells me alot, I only have 5 girls from last year. The best thing for my tracking production is I have my chickens separated into 3 small flocks, will add a fourth when the babies in the garage are ready. This allows me breeding projects such as developing a NN meat bird. That is still mostly in the mental stage, but Delawares have been ruled out-the don't grow enough to compensate for the appetite, though the eggs are lg and daily from pullets. Since any female silkies didn't make it out of the brooder, I hope that the boys will give me silkie crosses that will be good broodies. KikoMan (1,2 & 3) tread the SS and BA so I should have some eggs ready soon.
I have numerical standards and as long as they are met I don't worry. Right now I have to give away eggs, but I am working on that too.

 

[Qi Chicken]

Quote:
My thoughts exactly!!! In my defense, the ee's are easy to tell apart, a few of the brown ones, I think I know who lays them, after that it is not so easy!

 

[BlackRabbitWine]

I keep track of # of eggs by day but compile and save the data into weekly and monthly egg production. I have 3 flocks of 50 currently staggered by 6 months of age. The info is interesting- you can see how weather, seasonal changes, etc. affect egg laying. Also lets you know if there are other problems, such as worms, etc by comparing with the data of older flocks. Helps to determine how many eggs will be available to sell the coming month too.

 

[coolcanoechic]

Quote:
This is very interesting! Can you post the grafh? I would really like to see it!

 

[1MrsMagoo]

I keep track of all the eggs laid by the chickens, ducks, and now geese as well. I have a blank calendar page for each month on the refrigerator. When we come in we mark down how many eggs we got and what kind they are C, D or G. We also track any broken or cracked eggs and how many dozen eggs we sell.

At the end of the month I enter all the information in an Excel spreadsheet to track costs versus income. In November they paid their rent even though around 12 hens were not laying on any given day (have some young ones that are just starting and a few older ones in molt): We sold 71 dozen Chicken eggs and 4 dozen duck eggs last month. The egg income paid for the feed for the chickens, ducks, geese, goats and a bag for the cows too. If we considered the eggs we kept they would have done even better.

It helps me to see if things get "lop-sided" and the number of birds is becoming uneconomical, or tell me if I need to change the number of hours I am providing supplemental light. It is also great to have the information handy when my husband grills me about getting more eggs for the incubator. I can say, see honey...they are doing good. Why if we get X amount more hens, we may actually be able to fill our egg orders each week!

(We have two men that each want over 10 dozen each week...one will take 15...I have to ration the eggs to make sure everyone gets some).

 

[dbounds10]

I also keep track by hen. I have 6 and each lays a distinct egg so I can tell who layed what. I would be happy to send you the spreadsheet I use if you PM me your email address. It keeps track of egg production, color of eggs, size, expenses vs income (if you sell eggs). Just let me know and I will send it to you or anyone else on here that wants it.

 

[Auscal]

What, you mean everyone doesn't weigh every egg they collect?

But seriously, I do, and it has been interesting to record the gradual increase in average size over the months since they started to lay.

 

[Animalian]

I can tell my hens eggs apart by:

3yr old RIR = pale cream large egg that's slightly distended around the middle
9month old EE x D'uccle = pale cream, regular shape egg
11month old PR = dark cream/light tan egg.

I used to have a faverolle who had an even lighter shade of cream egg.

I think having different age hens helps with identification. I wasn't keeping 'laying records' but might just start now!

 

[stcroixusvi]

I write how many eggs we got each day on a calendar, just to keep track...... With 18, it's hard to tell who laid what.