Record Keeping

[PittyLova]

Hello all!

We've decided to expand our poultry keeping significantly in order to start selling eggs, and breeding. We've purchased a significant amount of chicks for this spring and decided record keeping is definitely going to be a necessity now that we're expanding. I could easily tell our 12 hens apart before, but with so many newbies and many of the same breed there will be way too much to remember.

My question is HOW do you keep records? What do you record? How often? At what age to you begin on a chick. It's inevitable that chicks will be lost, do you waste a numbered band on little ones knowing you're more likely to loose them when they're a couple of days old?

I started with banding my new group of Muscovies and recording a description and the fall/spring and year of hatch. Other than that what do we do moving forward with not only the Muscovies, but the chickens as well?

 

[Doublete]

How does everyone weigh their chicken?

 

[rjohns39]

@PittyLova Great question, one I hate but I'll do my best to answer what I do. I started out with a plan to do like @Melky with 20 birds it was tough but doable, at 50 not so much, at 200 impossible. So once I reevaluated, I went down the path of what's important to me?

• FCR
• Info required for taxes
• Mortality rates (Illness or Predator)

I hate leg bands, I've been through about a dozen different types and have finally settled on colored zip ties for year of hatch. I don't band a group until they are full grown. This spring I'll band Last years birds. The band needs to be tight enough that they can't get a beak/bill or tow in it, but loose enough so it moves around and won't fall off the foot.

A calendar where you record daily losses, sales, etc is invaluable. And annual inventories are easiest performed at night when they aren't moving.

I assume it's your intent to sell eggs and or meat. So some good resources:

1. Farm to consumer legal defense fund (FTCLDF) Depending on your intent membership goes as high as $125/year and you have a legal team available for you 24/7 to provide advice and protection from regulators.
2. Farm Bureau near you. $25/year and they have a wonderful tax booklet (I've mostly set mine up in excel) that helps you capture what you need to throughout the year.
3. I use Neat to capture all of my receipts. $18/month. I have a scanner, but they're changing the way they operate and I think putting more focus on the mobile app. Snap a picture of the receipt and it will be waiting for you in the cloud. Pay a little extra and they'll categorize it for you, I rarely use this service as I categorize to my Farm Bureau tax adviser's methods.
4. ATTRA Just a wealth of information. I can't remember, think $45/year.
5. American Pastured Poultry Producer's Association (APPPA) $50/year. This is where the pro's hang out who raise poultry with movement, sustainability and fresh grass.
6. Polyface Farms (books and resources) Free. Books aren't free but a lot of advice on their web-site is, including a fairly comprehensive reference section. A personal consult from Joel or Daniel is quite pricey.
7. If you're a veteran, Farmer Veteran Coalition. Free and a ton of info. Requires DD214 to register.

Also an important note. Portable fencing is treated different for taxes then permanent fences.

Asking the question up front makes a ton of sense. When in doubt, capture the data after your first year you'll have a better picture of what you need.

Hope this is helpful.

 

[PittyLova]

You ask great questions and I’m sure others will share. I am a small chicken flock so I do not band but if I were larger banding would probably become necessary with number ID. I do keep Flock records from hatch date. It includes any vaccinations or medical issues. I keep weights, breed, age, name and vet visits checkups, medical issue, treatments and when resolved. Vet name and number included. I also mark developmental milestones and nutrition including supplements.

I also keep a flock production record. I started on excel sheet and within a month switched to the free app Flockstar. I have two buffs and right now can’t tell their eggs apart as look alike so I mark them an unnamed hen and in comments mark Buffs. I only own two other breeds which I can name because I know the type of egg they lay. You can at least track production by breed if have too many of same breed if know type of egg they lay. I track weights and it saves egg data for me. I find this a helpful tool. If egg production drops will know right away and can sort that out. I also know when I’m trending up so I can prepare for egg sales at farmers market if too much for us.

Thanks so much for your input! I figured I'd start a flock sheet as well to record eggs and feed. Once our snow is finally gone I'm building new movable coops and electric netting "runs" for during the day. I think once all of that is in place it will be easier to track everything. I did figure I'd color code my girls by hatch time (year/season) that way once they start getting up there in age I can separate out easily enough and see just how productive they still are as a group. I have several types of breeds so will be able to tell which breed laid which egg by size/color for the most part. But other than that there will be too many to differentiate by individual I'm sure! I have not heard of that app before, I'll have to look into it!

 

[Melky]

Another important tool if you are commercial at all is the FCR. This tells you how profitable you are but this might be more important if raising birds for meat or eggs for sale. You can also divide by number of eggs produced. https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/damionrobertson2/feed-conversion-ratio

 

[PittyLova]

That's great thanks! I did get mostly breeds good with FCR (leghorns and some hybrids) but it will be interesting to see how they compare with the other breeds we have.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

Hello all!

We've decided to expand our poultry keeping significantly in order to start selling eggs, and breeding. We've purchased a significant amount of chicks for this spring and decided record keeping is definitely going to be a necessity now that we're expanding. I could easily tell our 12 hens apart before, but with so many newbies and many of the same breed there will be way too much to remember.

My question is HOW do you keep records? What do you record? How often? At what age to you begin on a chick. It's inevitable that chicks will be lost, do you waste a numbered band on little ones knowing you're more likely to loose them when they're a couple of days old?

I started with banding my new group of Muscovies and recording a description and the fall/spring and year of hatch. Other than that what do we do moving forward with not only the Muscovies, but the chickens as well?

Hi there! Yes I keep records on a calendar, but I only have eight chickens. I record the names of the chickens that lay the eggs that day, so if somebody doesn’t lay an egg for two or three days i check their bellies and their vents. I record there weight, so I know if one has lost weight to keep an eye on things.I keep track of their medical treatments, soft-shell egg laying, The date I buy their food so I know how long it lasts. I also keep the tag from their bags of feed in case there is a recall. I guess there are other things I keep track of too, but it is easy because I only have eight chickens.

 

[aart]

I use Excel with multiple sheets, some sheets are linked for costs, some are just for notes. I like to be able to configure the sheets and calculations, and amend them myself if/when needed.

The main purpose is to track cost of feeds and egg sales to see how far I am out of pocket. But only a dozen or so birds over wintered and I don't sell the the general public or claim any of it on my taxes....just a hobby that mostly pays for itself.

I use zipties from when they go from bator to brooder, right leg/left leg for year of hatch and various color combos for other notables....there's a sheet(s) for those too.

 

[Melky]

You ask great questions and I’m sure others will share. I am a small chicken flock so I do not band but if I were larger banding would probably become necessary with number ID. I do keep Flock records from hatch date. It includes any vaccinations or medical issues. I keep weights, breed, age, name and vet visits checkups, medical issue, treatments and when resolved. Vet name and number included. I also mark developmental milestones and nutrition including supplements.

I also keep a flock production record. I started on excel sheet and within a month switched to the free app Flockstar. I have two buffs and right now can’t tell their eggs apart as look alike so I mark them an unnamed hen and in comments mark Buffs. I only own two other breeds which I can name because I know the type of egg they lay. You can at least track production by breed if have too many of same breed if know type of egg they lay. I track weights and it saves egg data for me. I find this a helpful tool. If egg production drops will know right away and can sort that out. I also know when I’m trending up so I can prepare for egg sales at farmers market if too much for us.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

How does everyone weigh their chicken?

I just do it on my digital scale. I weigh myself and then I go and get the chicken and then I just subtract my weight from the total weight. Not super precise, but it has helped me before when one of my chickens was losing weight. It’s hard to notice weight-loss sometimes because of all the feathers. I was shocked and surprised when I saw the difference of one of my chickens weights compared to all the others. So I was able to correct it before it got any worse.