Statistics! Who keeps them,and of what.

[frenchblackcopper]

Some of us here just raise peas to have great looking yard ornaments.Others get more involved sometimes way too deep and have a whole passle of peas.I think I'm in the last group because when I first bought hatching eggs I thought maybe just have 4-5 and that was enough.But many things abour peas is much diffrent than having chickens,ect,,so the wallet opened more and now things here have went above the initial 4-5 that I thought would be pretty yard ornaments.
We all know recordkeeping of peas is front and center when it comes to knowng the genetics of the birds we have once they get older.So just how complete of recordkeeping do you do? Maybe I'm extreme but my notebook is almost full now from 2 years of records and I'll need a new one next spring,,but here is what I have written down,and I also have files stored on my harddrive.
When I started buying hatching eggs,I kept track of the 1)sellers information,2),eggs bought,3)eggs shipped,then 4)eggs cracked-broken and air sacks dislodged.Then 5)how much I paid for them,and 6)shipping costs,7)then the actual date of hatch.
I did keep track of feed consumed and feed costs but was using some of the same feed for ornamental pheasants so I stopped.But now once again I think it's a necessity since we all know the corn crop will be a lot less this year,so all peas should rise in selling prices accordingly.
This year was my first year for getting my own eggs,,each nite after collection I would write down how many eggs came from each of the 8 seperate pens I have.I didn't keep track of any that was broken,,only eggs fit enough to incubate or sell.I also kept track of eggs sold,how many and what colors,and then actual peachicks I hatched and on what day.
The last step will be of the birds I actually wingband,,,
By keeping these records I can figure how many eggs was laid per hen all season,,which pen had the highest fertility-hatch rate,which pen started laying first and last,and overall the best producing pen.I made some feed-protein adjustments in one pen after developing eggs would quit and noticed a significant increase in hatch rates after that adjustment in hatching out their eggs,,almost a 65% increase.Does anyone else keep these records? Or does anyone actually care how and what their flock produces on a per-pen or per-color basis? I could in all reality by adding all my past expenses divided by the total chicks I hatched this spring and money from eggs sold come up with a "price per pea" but that number would scare everyone including myself.

 

[new 2 pfowl]

Wow fbc, somehow it doesn't surprise me that you keep such good records.
Are you a Virgo? (just kidding, I had a friend who used to tell me that I was so organized and liked making charts because I'm a Virgo).

Of course, I am guessing that we will all end up benefiting from the fact that you are so detail oriented, because hopefully you will share your discoveries and conclusions with us. But don't figure out the ppp (price-per-pea) because, as you say, it might discourage you.

Keep up the good work!

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Gemini here,sorry! I think it will be interesting next year to compare records because 85% of my birds became 2 yrs old this summer,and didn't start laying until later in the season such as the case of my India Blues,they didn't lay more than about 8 eggs per hen total for all season and started to lay Mid June.
I've found also as in the case of my one pen of birds having eggs develope,then quit and dying in the shell,,that increasing the protein levels by 5% stopped this almost completely.This was my last added BSSP pen which was bought and moved to Pea Palace in late May. Eggs laid and put into the bator 3 days after this feed change has been over 90% all hatchers now.Someone else has to be doing this??? Keeping records??

 

[Mmmatt13]

I hope to keep records close to what you've got. I was looking for a journal with a little peacock on it or something like that, just so I know which journal is the one I use for keeping track of peas. I do, however, have hatch dates of my birds so far, and I'll hopefully be able to write down which birds their parents are. I sent an email to the guy I got the three from, and then with Muppet, I'll wait it out, but for now I'm saying Bronze father, IB mother.

We'll see if I can keep up with the record-keeping over time, especially if I become a breeder, but we will see.

 

[AugeredIn]

I keep records of almost everything. I do not wing band though.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

AugeredIn,,Do you legband then? How do you keep track of them,especially if you have 2 IB hens Phenotype yet one is a split?

 

[Yoda]

How do you tell what egg came from which hen in each pen? say that 10 times fast LOL

 

[AugeredIn]

I do leg band both (plastic and metal) splits, both hens and cocks, but I try to keep very few. I also leg band some hens because I have screwed up before. The purples,midnights, plain IB and even bronze hens can look the same sometimes or they used to (knock on wood I have not screwed up lately). Most of my splits are white eye and you can tell those hens apart. I also leg band chicks as so many look the same.

I am not able to tell which hen laid an egg where multiple females exist of the same type in the same pen. That does not bother me much unless I have like four hens in one pen and I know one is not laying. It happened in my bronze pen this year and I separated the hens to figure out which one had the problem.

My biggest frustration is not being able to figure out feed consumption rates per bird. I am experimenting with weight gain versus feed this year in a group of chicks.

I number every egg I pick up to incubate.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

I've considered leg banding all my adults this fall,,mainly because I have so many b/s hens they all look very close as being the same,and some of them I've only had since this spring.But,I do no know what size leg bands to get. I don't want the split plastic ones as I've used them on chickens and they come off. I want a metal legband that has to be squeezed on after it's around the birds leg.On some hatches where BSSP,Opal B/S and Midnight B/S chicks all are due to hatch I finally made a 9 compartment cardboard box to put in place of my hatching tray,,that way if I'm gone and anything hatches they will still be where their marked egg is at.I then use 4" zip ties of diffrent colors and leg combinations before moving to the brooder to further keep them straight before wingbnding
Feed consumption here at one time was close to 8-10 oz dry measure per bird,,,stayed pretty much the same even in the wintertime.Individual single bird pens for eating along with a "clicker" can be used if your really serious about feed intake per bird.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Yoda,,I do not keep individual hen records per say,,rather a record of the eggs laid per pen-color,ect. Manytimes this summer tho by walking out to the Palace about 6pm and looking into each pen and listening. You can tell which hens will lay that night by their calling. I do have hatched peas now that I do know who their mom is and several more marked in the bator yet to hatch.I do have a special request for some BSSP chicks from one particular hen and her eggs are marked.