Eleven eggs today. about every third day I get eleven from the twenty one hens, other days--the harvest ranges between four and ten. I'm thinking that seven is about average. That makes about four dozen eggs/week.
On January 18th I bought a 50 pound bag of layer pellets and one of scratch for a total of $27.50.
I used the remainder of both bags today-- so 29 days of feed. Thats a little less than a dollar a day.
$7.00/ week, so my four dozen eggs are worth about $1.75, in feed, not counting the treats I buy the chickens, a loaf of cheap whole wheat bread, and a bit of bird seed. And this doesn't average in the cost of 26 chicks( five died), the five months I fed them and kept them under a heat lamp, as they matured and the past four months when they averaged 3 eggs a day due to molting and short days.
So, if my goal is to have eggs pay for feed throughout the spring and summer, I need to sell two dozen eggs per week at $3.50 a dozen. That seems to be a reasonable goal if I deliver them by bike through Honey Bear campground during the vacation months(March through September).
I took a couple of dozen eggs to honey bear campground; traded one dozen for some sausage. the other was claimed to be too expensive, especially when eggs are on sale at McKay's for $.99. But my chickens lay eggs that have yolks the color of a ripe apricot.
My accountant wants to know about the business of selling eggs. I wonder if the tax advantages of this project will be a factor.
A couple of days ago I couldn't keep the chickens in because of the 50 K wind gusts. Thats the downside of using seine web for fencing-it flags in the wind. Other than that the 3 1/4 inch seine web makes a good fence that is easy to alter to give the chickens access to different parts of the garden.
There had been an issue with the brahmas flying over the fence so I used some old herring gillnet (2 3/8" mesh) to cover there big run, ( approximately 4000 square feet of grass, brush, lalandy cypress and unused garden).
At night the chickens are closed into an 8 X 8' house with an 8' by 20' enclosed run with 1/4" hardware cloth to keep rats, raccoons, weasels, and birds out.
But, like any pets, the chickens give me pleasure that is immeasurable.
Yesterday the storm clouds were amazing.
It cleared up this afternoon and the sun set spectacularly.
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